Open Paleo

Tatisaurus

Simmons & Nash, 1965 DAH-DEE-SAWR-us Nomen dubium

From 'Ta Ti' (Da Di), the name of the village in Yunnan Province, China near where the fossil was found, plus Greek sauros ('lizard')

199.5–192.9 million years ago Sinemurian, Early Jurassic
Early Jurassic stages

Tatisaurus is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur from the Early Jurassic from the Lower Lufeng Formation in Yunnan Province in China. Little is known as the remains are fragmentary. The type species is T. oehleri.

Under dispute

Tatisaurus is a nomen dubium based on fragmentary jaw material from the Early Jurassic of China. Simmons (1965) allied it with primitive hypsilophodonts; Norman and colleagues (2007) refer it to Thyreophora on a single character, the ventral deflection of the front of the dentary tooth row, and Irmis and Knoll (2008) treat it as an indeterminate thyreophoran. Raven and colleagues (2019) note it may be the same taxon as Bienosaurus, but that this cannot be determined.

Species

Tatisaurus oehleri Simmons & Nash, 1965 Nomen dubium

Type species

Named for Father Edgar Oehler, the Catholic priest who excavated the fossils near Da Di village in Yunnan, China, in 1948 and 1949.

Holotype
FMNH CUP 2088 , Field Museum of Natural History
Material
A partial left dentary (about 60 mm long, with 18 alveoli) bearing fragments of the quadrate and surangular-articular on its medial surface.
Horizon
Zhangjiawa Member, Lufeng Formation, Sinemurian, Early Jurassic , 199.5–192.9 million years ago
Locality
Ta Ti, Yunnan, China

References

  1. Simmons, D. J.; Nash, E. G. (1965). The non-therapsid reptiles of the Lufeng Basin, Yunnan, China. Chicago Natural History Museum Press. doi:10.5962/bhl.title.5426

    Named Tatisaurus and allied it with primitive hypsilophodonts.

    simmons1965a
  2. Norman, D. B.; Butler, R. J.; Maidment, S. C. R. (2007). Reconsidering the status and affinities of the ornithischian dinosaur Tatisaurus oehleri Simmons, 1965. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 150(4): 865-874. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2007.00301.x

    Redescription of Tatisaurus oehleri as a nomen dubium, referred to Thyreophora on the ventral deflection of the dentary tooth row.

    norman2007a
  3. Raven, T. J.; Barrett, P. M.; Xu, X.; Maidment, S. C. R. (2019). A reassessment of the purported ankylosaurian dinosaur Bienosaurus lufengensis from the Lower Lufeng Formation of Yunnan, China. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 64(2): 335-342. doi:10.4202/app.00577.2018

    Notes Tatisaurus may be the same taxon as Bienosaurus, but that this cannot be determined.

    raven2019a
  4. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Treats Tatisaurus as a nomen dubium, possibly a synonym of Bienosaurus.

    jones2026a
  5. Irmis, R. B.; Knoll, F. (2008). New ornithischian dinosaur material from the Lower Jurassic Lufeng Formation of China. Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen 247(1): 117-128. doi:10.1127/0077-7749/2008/0247-0117

    Treats Tatisaurus and Bienosaurus as two indeterminate thyreophorans.

    irmis2008a