Tianzhenosaurus

Taxobox
name = "Tienzhenosaurus"
fossil_range = Late Cretaceous
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
subordo = Thyreophora
infraordo = Ankylosauria
familia = Ankylosauridae
genus = "Tianzhenosaurus"
genus_authority = Pang & Cheng, 1998
subdivision_ranks=Species
subdivision=
*"T. youngi" Pang & Cheng, 1998 (type)

"Tianzhenosaurus" ("Tianzhen" + Greek "sauros"="lizard") is a genus of ankylosaurid dinosaur discovered in Tianzhen County, at Kangdailiang near Zhaojiagou Village, in Shanxi Province, China, in the Late Cretaceous Huiquanpu Formation. Thus far, a virtually complete skull and postcranial skeleton have been assigned to the genus, which is monotypic ("T. youngi" Pang & Cheng, 1998). This was a medium-sized ankylosaurian, the skull measuring 28 centimeters (11 in) in length, with a total body length of approximately 4 meters (13 ft). Some authors have suggested that "Tianzhenosaurus" is actually a junior synonym of "Saichania chulsanensis", but this matter remains unresolved, and Vickaryous "et al". (2004) placed it within the Ankylosauridae, nested as the sister group to "Pinacosaurus".

References

*Carpenter, K. (ed.) The Armored Dinosaurs. pp. 454-483. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.
*Pang, Q and Cheng, Z. 1998. A new ankylosaur of the late Cretaceous from Tianzhen, Shanxi. Progress in Natural Science 8(3):326-334.
*Vickaryous, Maryanska, and Weishampel 2004. Chapter Seventeen: Ankylosauria. in The Dinosauria (2nd edition), Weishampel, D. B., Dodson, P., and Osmólska, H., editors. University of California Press.