Open Paleo

Szechuanosaurus

Young, 1942 SUH-CHWAHN-o-SAWR-us Nomen dubium

Named after the Szechuan (Sichuan) Province of China where fossils were found, combined with Greek sauros, "lizard" — means "Szechuan lizard"

Szechuanosaurus is an extinct genus of carnivorous theropod dinosaur from China. Its type species is based on several undiagnostic teeth from the top of the beds Young (1942) called the Kuangyuan Series, at Locality 47 south of Guangyuan, Sichuan. Potential specimens referred to the genus span from the Late Jurassic through the Early Cretaceous. Additional possible specimens were also reported from the Kalaza Formation.

Species

Szechuanosaurus campi Young, 1942 Nomen dubium

Type species

Honors paleontologist Charles Lewis Camp, who first described a carnivorous dinosaur from the Red Basin of Szechuan

Syntypes
IVPP V235, IVPP V236, IVPP V238, IVPP V239 , Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology
Material
Six isolated teeth: two broken, three fragmentary, and one nearly complete; crowns compressed and moderately curved, with anterior and posterior denticulations.
Horizon
Late Jurassic
Locality
Locality 47 (Chentsianyen escarpment), south of Kuangyuan city, Sichuan, China Young (1942) gives Locality 47 as "belonging to the top part of the Kuangyuan Series and immediately below the Chentsianyen conglomerate"; Young (1942) and Molnar (1974) both write Series, never Formation. Young and colleagues (1943) place the Kuangyuan Series concordantly above the Tsienfuyen Series and date the two together to "Upper Jurassic time (Purbeckian)", with the overlying conglomerate "tentatively regarded as of Cretaceous in age by its stratigraphic position". Dong and colleagues (1983) write that the region's red clastics "were formerly referred to as the Guangyuan Group", and their header gives these teeth the Chungking (Guangyuan) Group. The type teeth are not the referred skeleton from the upper Shaximiao Formation at Zigong.

References

  1. Young, C. C. (1942). Fossil Vertebrates from Kuangyuan, N. Szechuan, China. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China 22(3-4): 293-309. Wiley. doi:10.1111/j.1755-6724.1942.mp223-4016.x young1942a
  2. Carrano, M. T.; Benson, R. B. J.; Sampson, S. D. (2012). The phylogeny of Tetanurae (Dinosauria: Theropoda). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 10(2): 211-300. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/14772019.2011.630927

    Tetanurae phylogeny supporting reassignment of Szechuanosaurus material to Yangchuanosaurus.

    carrano2012a
  3. Dong, Z.; Zhou, S.; Zhang, H. (1983). [Dinosaurs from the Jurassic of Sichuan]. Palaeontologica Sinica, New Series C, Whole Number 162(23): 1-136.

    Restates the type specimens' position as the Chungking Group and uses the modern spelling Guangyuan for the city and unit.

    dong1983a
  4. Molnar, R. E. (1974). A distinctive theropod dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Baja California (Mexico). Journal of Paleontology 48(5): 1009-1017.

    Independently gives the type locality's unit as the Kuangyuan Series, at series rank.

    molnar1974a
  5. Young, C. C.; Bien, M. N.; Mi, T. H. (1943). Some geologic problems of the Tsinling. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China 23(1-2): 15-34. doi:10.1111/j.1755-6724.1943.mp231-2002.x

    Places the Kuangyuan Series concordantly above the Tsienfuyen Series, below a conglomerate tentatively dated Cretaceous, and dates the two series Upper Jurassic.

    young1943a