Xiaosaurus

Taxobox
name = "Xiaosaurus"
fossil_range = Middle Jurassic
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
familia = unknown
genus = "Xiaosaurus"
genus_authority=Dong and Tang, 1983
subdivision_ranks=Species
subdivision=
*"X. dashanpensis" Dong and Tang, 1983 (type)

"Xiaosaurus" ("little lizard", pronEng|ʃaʊˈsɔrəs, from Chinese "xiao" 小, little), is a dubious genus of small herbivorous dinosaur of the Bathonian age (middle Jurassic, approximately 169 to 163 mya). "Xiaosaurus" lived in the Sichuan Basin of China. It is known only from teeth and a few isolated bones, remains too fragmentary to accurately classify the genus. It is definitely a member of the order Ornithischia, and possibly a hypsilophodontid or marginocephalian. The type species, "X. dashanpensis" (Dong Zhiming & Tang Zilu, 1983), has sometimes been considered dubious, but Barrett "et al." (2006) consider it to be provisionally valid. "Xiaosaurus" may provide an evolutionary link from "Lesothosaurus" to "Hypsilophodon", but this is uncertain.

References

*Barrett, P.M., Butler, R.J., and Knoll, F. 2005. Small-bodied ornithischian dinosaurs from the Middle Jurassic of Sichuan, China. "Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology" 25(4):823-834.
* [http://www.dinoruss.org/de_4/5ce89c3.htm "Xiaosaurus" in the Dinosaur Encyclopaedia] at Dino Russ's Lair
* [http://www.dinodictionary.com/dinos_wz.asp DinoDictionary.com's entry for "Xiaosaurus"]

External links

* [http://www.angellis.net/Web/DNR/xiaosauru.jpgImage of "Xiaosaurus" at Angellis]