Open Paleo

Banji

Xu & Han, 2010 BAHN-jee

From Chinese '斑嵴' (bān jǐ) meaning 'striped crest', referring to the prominent crest on its skull; the full species name Banji long means 'striped crest dragon' in Chinese.

72.2–66.0 million years ago Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Banji is an extinct genus of oviraptorid dinosaur that lived approximately 66 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period in what is now China. It was a small, lightly built, ground-dwelling, bipedal carnivore, that was an estimated 65 cm (2.1 ft) long, as a juvenile.

Diagnosis

  1. Crest formed by premaxillae and nasals having a step-wise posterior end, bearing two longitudinal grooves and numerous oblique striations on each lateral surface
  2. Extremely elongate external naris, posteriorly situated and close to the orbit
  3. Deep fossa on the dorsal surface of the palatal ramus of the pterygoid
  4. Several longitudinal grooves along the posterior part of the dorsal margin of the dentary
  5. Several tubercles along the lateral shelf at the dorsal margin of the surangular

Species

Banji long Xu & Han, 2010

Type species

From Chinese 'long' meaning 'dragon', making the full binomial name meaning 'striped crest dragon' in Chinese.

Holotype
IVPP V16896 , Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology
Material
Nearly complete skull and mandible.
Horizon
Nanxiong Formation, Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 72.2–66.0 million years ago
Locality
Hongcheng Basin, Jiangxi, China Xu and Han (2010) bought the holotype and report only that it came from the Hongcheng Basin near Ganzhou City. They place it "possibly" in the Nanxiong Formation, the red beds there being "normally correlated with" that unit rather than assigned to it, so both the find site and the formation are inferred.

References

  1. Xu, X.; Han, F. L. (2010). A new oviraptorid dinosaur (Theropoda: Oviraptorosauria) from the Upper Cretaceous of China. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 48(1): 11-18. xu2010d
  2. Paul, G. S. (2024). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs (3rd ed.). Princeton University Press.

    Source of the body length and mass estimates.

    paul2024a
  3. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Theropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the hip height estimate, and the appearance features.

    jones2026c