Gigantspinosaurus

Taxobox|
name = "Gigantspinosaurus"
fossil_range = Late Jurassic
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
ordo = Ornithischia
subordo = Thyreophora
infraordo = Stegosauria
genus = "Gigantspinosaurus"
binomial = "Gigantspinosaurus sichuanensis"
binomial_authority = Ouyang, 1992

"Gigantspinosaurus" (meaning "giant-spined lizard") is a genus of dinosaur from the Late Jurassic. It was a stegosaur found in the Upper Shaximiao Formation of Zigong, Sichuan, China, and is known from a partial skeleton missing the skull (except for the lower jaw), hind feet, and tail. The type species, "Gigantspinosaurus sichuanensis", was described in 1992,cite journal |last=Ouyang |first=H. |year=1992 |title=Discovery of "Gigantspinosaurus sichanensis" and its scapular spine orientation |journal=Abstracts and Summaries for Youth Academic Symposium on New Discoveries and Ideas in Stratigraphic Paleontology |volume=null |pages=47–49 |language=Chinese ] but was generally considered a "nomen nudum",cite web |url=http://dml.cmnh.org/1995Nov/msg00158.html |title=Dinosaur Genera List corrections #19 |accessdate=2007-03-02 |author=George Olshevsky |authorlink=George Olshevsky |date=1995-11-07] until 2006. Despite its questionable nomenclatural status, images of "Gigantspinosaurus" have appeared in several sources, and a mounted skeleton has been on display in Zigong since 1996. "Gigantspinosaurus" has a distinctive appearance with relatively small dorsal plates and greatly enlarged shoulder spines, twice the length of the shoulder blades. Recent research indicates that "Gigantspinosaurus" is the most basal known member of Stegosauria.cite journal |last=Maidment |first=Susannah C.R. |year=2006 |title=Systematics and phylogeny of the Stegosauria (Dinosauria, Ornithischia) |journal=Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology |volume=26 |issue=(Supplement to Number 3 |pages=94A] It is estimated to have been about 4 metres long. [http://dinodex.8m.com/gigantspinosaurus.html]

Public awareness of this animal was increased in early 2006 when Tracy Ford,cite journal |last=Ford |first=Tracy L. |year=2006 |title=Stegosaurs: Plates, splates, and spikes, part 1 |journal=Prehistoric Times |volume=76 |pages=20–21] considering it a validly established taxon, published a short article on reconstructing it. Ford suggested that earlier reconstructions of "Gigantspinosaurus" attached the shoulder spines upside-down, and his new reconstruction shows the spine extending somewhat upwards, ending higher than the top of the animal's back. Susannah Maidment and Guangbiao Wei (2006) treated "G. sichuanensis" as a valid taxon in their review of Late Jurassic Chinese stegosaurs, but did not redescribe it because it is currently under study by Zigong Dinosaur Museum staff.cite journal |last=Maidment |first=Susannah C.R. |coauthors=and Wei, Guangbaio. |year=2006 |title=A review of the Late Jurassic stegosaurs (Dinosauria, Stegosauria) from the People's Republic of China |journal=Geological Magazine |volume=143 |pages=621–634 |doi=10.1017/S0016756806002500 ]

References

External links

* [http://www.users.qwest.net/~jstweet1/stegosauria.htm "Gigantspinosaurs"] at "Thescelosaurus"!, under Stegosauridae "i.s."