Open Paleo

Chingkankousaurus

Young, 1958 Jin-gang-kou Nomen dubium

Named after Ch'ing-kang-kou (Wade-Giles romanization; pinyin: Jin-gang-kou, meaning 'diamond port', Chinese: 金刚口), a village in Shandong Province, China, combined with Greek sauros meaning 'lizard'. Full meaning: 'Chingkankou lizard'.

83.6–72.2 million years ago Campanian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Chingkankousaurus is a genus of theropod dinosaur containing the single species Chingkankousaurus fragilis. C. fragilis is known only from a single fossilized bone fragment (specimen number IVPP V 836) from the late Cretaceous Period Wangshi Series of Shandong province in eastern China.

Under dispute

Chingkankousaurus fragilis is a nomen dubium based on the posterior part of a single right scapula (IVPP V836) from the Late Cretaceous of Shandong, China. Brusatte and colleagues (2013) upheld its identification as a scapula and placed it within Tyrannosauroidea, more derived than Guanlong and Dilong, but found no autapomorphies or unique character combination to diagnose the specimen. Holtz (2004) had referred it to Tarbosaurus and treated the species as a nomen dubium; Brusatte and colleagues (2013) considered that referral possible but unprovable, retaining the specimen as an indeterminate tyrannosauroid.

Species

Chingkankousaurus fragilis Young, 1958 Nomen dubium

Type species

From Latin 'fragilis' meaning 'fragile', referring to the delicate or fragmentary nature of the known fossil material.

Holotype
IVPP V836 , Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology
Material
Posterior end of a right scapula.
Horizon
Hongtuya Formation, Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–72.2 million years ago
Locality
Laiyang, Shandong, China The provincial lithostratigraphy (Zhang and Liu, 1996) lists "Chinkangkousaurus fragivis" from the Tianqiaotun area of Laiyang in the Hongtuya Formation.

References

  1. Young, C. C. (1958). The dinosaurian remains of Laiyang, Shantung. Palaeontologia Sinica, New Series C, Whole Number 142(16): 1-138.

    Original description of Chingkankousaurus fragilis, based on the scapula IVPP V836.

    young1958a
  2. Brusatte, S. L.; Hone, D. W. E.; Xu, X. (2013). Phylogenetic revision of Chingkankousaurus fragilis, a forgotten tyrannosauroid specimen from the Late Cretaceous of China. Tyrannosaurid Paleobiology. Indiana University Press, Bloomington.

    Phylogenetic revision confirming the holotype as a tyrannosauroid scapula and the species as a nomen dubium lacking diagnostic features.

    brusatte2013a
  3. Holtz, T. R. (2004). Tyrannosauroidea. The Dinosauria, Second Edition (Weishampel, D. B.; Dodson, P.; Osmólska, H., eds.) 111-136. University of California Press, Berkeley. holtz2004b
  4. Zhang, Z. Q.; Liu, M. W. (eds.) (1996). 山东省岩石地层 [Stratigraphy (Lithostratigraphic) of Shandong Province]. 全国地层多重划分对比研究 [Multiple Classification and Correlation of the Stratigraphy of China] 37. China University of Geosciences Press, Wuhan.

    Compiled by the Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources of Shandong Province; the book names Zhang Zengqi and Liu Mingwei as its compilers (p. 7).

    zhang1996a