Shanxia

Taxobox
name = "Shanxia"
fossil_range = Late Cretaceous
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
subordo = Thyreophora
familia = Ankylosauridae
genus = "Shanxia"
genus_authority = Barrett "et al.", 1998
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
*"S. tianzhenensis" Barrett "et al.", 1998 (type)

"Shanxia" ("West Mountain one") is a genus of ankylosaurid dinosaur that lived during the upper Cretaceous Period. Its fossils were recovered and named after the Shanxi Province of China, and it is known only from scrappy remains found in river deposits. Based on the relative lengths of the femur and other leg bones, it probably reached a length of around 3.6 meters (12 ft).

The most prominent feature of "Shanxia", which differentiates it from other ankylosaurs, were the long and flattened triangle-shaped horns that projected backward from the squamosal bones on either side of the rear portion of its skull at an angle of 145 degrees. However, the unique shape of these horns may be due to individual variation, and a few scientists (such as Sullivan, 1999) consider "Shanxia" a "nomen dubium", possibly synonymous with the related ankylosaurid "Tianzhenosaurus".

References

* cite journal
author = Barrett, P. M., You, H., Upchurch, P. & Burton, A. C.
year = 1998
title = A new ankylosaurian dinosaur (Ornithischia: Ankylosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous of Shanxi Province, People's Republic of China
journal = Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
volume = 18
issue = 2
pages = 376–384
* cite journal
author = Sullivan, R. M.
year = 1999
title = "Nodocephalosaurus kirtlandensis", gen. et sp. nov., a new ankylosaurid dinosaur (Ornithischia: Ankylosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous Kirtland Formation (Upper Campanian), San Juan Basin, New Mexico.
journal = Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
volume = 19
issue = 1
pages = 126–139
* cite journal
author = Upchurch, P. and Barrett, P. M.
year = 2000
title = The taxonomic status of "Shanxia tianzhenensis" (Ornithiscia, Ankylosauridae); a response to Sullivan (1999)
journal = Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
volume = 20
pages = 216–217
doi = 10.1671/0272-4634(2000)020 [0216:TTSOST] 2.0.CO;2
doilabel = 10.1671/0272-4634(2000)020[0216:TTSOST]2.0.CO;2

External links

* [http://www.dinosauria.com/dml/dmlf.htm A short discussion of "Shanxia" from the DOL Omnipedia.]
* [http://www.dinoruss.com/de_4/5caa738.htm "Shanxia" in The Dinosaur Encyclopaedia] at Dino Russ's Lair
* [http://www.dinodata.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7455&Itemid=67 "Shanxia" at DinoData]