Open Paleo

Xuwulong

You et al., 2011 shoo-WOO-long

Named after pioneering Gansu Province geologist Wang Yue-lun, known by the courtesy name 'Xu-wu', combined with Chinese 'long' meaning 'dragon'

121.4–113.2 million years ago Aptian, Early Cretaceous
Early Cretaceous stages

Xuwulong is a genus of hadrosauroid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous period of what is now Yujingzi Basin in the Jiuquan area, Gansu Province of northwestern China. It is known from the holotype, GSGM F00001, an articulated specimen including a complete cranium, almost complete axial skeleton, and complete left pelvic girdle recovered from the Xinminpu Group. Xuwulong was named by You Hailu, Li Daqing, and Liu Weichang in 2011, and the type species is Xuwulong yueluni; the binomial name as a whole refers to Professor Wang Yue-lun; "Xu-wu" is Wang's courtesy name.

Diagnosis

  1. V-shaped rostral end of dentary in lateral view, tip lying slightly below mid-height of dentary ramus
  2. Mandibular articular surface level with mid-height of dentary ramus (not near ventral edge as in other basal hadrosauriforms)
  3. Prepubic process enlarged distally and downturned (not upturned as in Ouranosaurus)

Species

Xuwulong yueluni You et al., 2011

Type species

Named for Wang Yue-lun, a pioneering geologist of Gansu Province, China, with the species epithet derived from the given name.

Holotype
GSGM F00001 , Gansu Geological Museum
Material
Articulated skeleton including skull, lower jaw, axial skeleton (lacking distal caudals), left pectoral and pelvic girdles, and left fore- and hindlimbs.
Horizon
upper Xiagou Formation, Aptian, Early Cretaceous , 121.4–113.2 million years ago
Locality
Yujingzi Basin, Gansu, China You and colleagues (2014) assigned the Yujingzi hadrosauroids to the Zhonggou Formation on a personal communication. Suarez and colleagues (2018) supersede that, placing the gray-variegated beds that yield this specimen in the uppermost Xiagou on carbon-isotope chemostratigraphy across 450 samples.

References

  1. You, H.; Li, D.; Liu, W. (2011). A new hadrosauriform dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Gansu Province, China. Acta Geologica Sinica (English Edition) 85(1): 51-57. doi:10.1111/j.1755-6724.2011.00377.x you2011a
  2. Paul, G. S. (2024). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs (3rd ed.). Princeton University Press.

    Source of the body length and mass estimates, and the appearance features.

    paul2024a
  3. Suarez, M. B.; Milder, T.; Peng, N.; Suarez, C. A.; You, H.; Li, D.; Dodson, P. (2018). Chemostratigraphy of the Lower Cretaceous dinosaur-bearing Xiagou and Zhonggou formations, Yujingzi Basin, northwest China. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 38(sup1): 12-21. doi:10.1080/02724634.2018.1510412

    Places the gray-variegated beds in the uppermost Xiagou Formation and the overlying red beds in the lower Zhonggou, dating the former to the upper Aptian.

    suarez2018a
  4. You, H. L.; Li, D. Q.; Dodson, P. (2014). Gongpoquansaurus mazongshanensis (Lü, 1997) comb. nov. (Ornithischia: Hadrosauroidea) from the Early Cretaceous of Gansu Province, northwestern China. Hadrosaurs 73-76. Indiana University Press. you2014a