Gongbusaurus

Taxobox|
name = "Gongbusaurus"
status = fossil
fossil_range = Late Jurassic
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
subordo = unknown
genus = "Gongbusaurus"
genus_authority = Dong, Zhou, and Zhang, 1983
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
*"G. shiyii" (type species) Dong, Zhou, and Zhang, 1983
*?"G." "wucaiwanensis" Dong, 1989 (see also Eugongbusaurus)

"Gongbusaurus" (meaning "Yu Gong (of the Zigong Dinosaur Museum)'s lizard") is a genus of ornithischian (an ornithopod?) dinosaur that lived between about 160 and 155 million years ago, in the Late Jurassic period. A small herbivore, it is very poorly known. Two species have been assigned to it, but as the original name is based on teeth, there is no concrete evidence to connect the two species. Its fossils have been found in China.

Description

"Gongbusaurus", by extrapolation from the remains of possible species "G." "wucaiwanensis" and other basal ornithopods, was a herbivorous bipedal animal around 1.3 to 1.5 meters long (4.3 to 4.9 ft). It would have been a strong runner.cite journal |author=Dong Zhiming |authorlink=Dong Zhiming |year=1989 |title=On a small ornithopod ("Gongbusaurus wucaiwanensis" sp. nov.) from Kelamaili, Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, China |journal=Vertebrata PalAsiatica |volume=27 |issue=2 |pages=140–146]

Classification

Dong Zhiming, Zhou Shiwu, and Zhang Zicheng, who originally described the type species "G. shiyii", thought it was most similar to "Fabrosaurus" and assigned it to the nebulous Fabrosauridae.cite journal |author=Dong Zhiming |coauthors=Zhou Shiwu; and Zhang Zicheng |year=1983 |title=Dinosaurs from the Jurassic of Sichuan |journal=Palaeontologica Sinica, New Series C |volume=162 |issue=23 |pages=1–145 |language=Chinese] Upon description of the second species "G." "wucaiwanensis" several years later, Dong elected to assign it to Hypsilophodontidae, an equally-nebulous family of somewhat more derived small bipedal ornithischians, while at about the same time, David B. Weishampel and Larry Witmer found "Gongbusaurus" to be an indeterminate basal ornithischian.cite book |last=Weishampel |first=David B. |authorlink=David B. Weishampel |coauthors=and Witmer, Lawrence M. |editor=Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.)|title=The Dinosauria |edition=1st |year=1990 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=0-520-06727-4 |pages=416-425 |chapter="Lesothosaurus", "Pisanosaurus", and "Technosaurus"] The most recent reviews also found the genus to be a dubious ornithischian,cite book |last=Norman |first=David B. |authorlink=David B. Norman |coauthors=Witmer, Larry M.; and Weishampel, David B. |editor=Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.)|title=The Dinosauria |edition=2nd |year= 2004 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=0-520-24209-2 |pages=325-334 |chapter=Basal Ornithischia] and recommended renaming the better-known second species.cite book |last=Norman |first=David B. |authorlink=David B. Norman |coauthors=Sues, Hans-Dieter; Witmer, Larry M.; and Coria, Rodolfo A. |editor=Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.)|title=The Dinosauria |edition=2nd |year= 2004|publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |isbn=0-520-24209-2 |pages=393–412 |chapter=Basal Ornithopoda] Peter Galton has noted that the teeth on which "Gongbusaurus" is based resemble those of "Sarcolestes" and "Gastonia", so the genus may actually be an ankylosaurian.cite book |last=Galton |first=Peter M. |authorlink=Peter Galton |year=2006 |chapter=Teeth of ornithischian dinosaurs (mostly Ornithopoda) from the Morrison Formation (Upper Jurassic) of the western United States |editor=Carpenter, Kenneth (ed.) |title=Horns and Beaks: Ceratopsian and Ornithopod Dinosaurs |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington and Indianapolis |pages=17-47 |isbn=ISBN 0-253-34817-X ]

History

Dong and his coauthors established "Gongbusaurus" on two teeth IVPP V9069: one from the beak, and one from the cheek. These remains came from the Oxfordian-age Upper Shaximiao Formation in Sichuan, China. Dong added a second species, "G." "wucaiwanensis", in 1989 for a fragmentary skeleton (IVPP 8302) including a partial lower jaw, three tail vertebrae, and a partial forelimb, and added another specimen (IVPP 8303) consisting of two hip vertebrae, eight tail vertebrae, and two complete hind limbs. These remains came from the roughly contemporanous Shishugou Formation of Wucaiwan, Xinjiang.

Tooth species are not well-regarded in dinosaur paleontology, because dinosaur teeth are generally not distinctive enough to hold a name. Therefore, it is unsurprising that other paleontologists have suggested removing "G." "wucaiwanensis". A possible replacement name, "Eugongbusaurus",cite book |last=Knoll |first=Fabien |year=1999 |chapter=The family Fabrosauridae |editors=Canudo, J.I.; and Cuenca-Bescós, G. (eds.) |title=IV European Workshop on Vertebrate Palaeontology, Albarracin (Teruel, Spain), junio de 1999. Programme and Abstracts, Field guide |publisher=Servicio Publicaciones Universidad de Zaragoza |pages=54] has accidentally gotten to the public, but remains informal.

References

External links

* [http://www.users.qwest.net/~jstweet1/ornithischia.htm Ornithischia] (scroll to Ornithischia to Genasauria "i.s.")