Heilongjiangosaurus
Encyclopedia
"Heilongjiangosaurus" is the informal name given to an as-yet undescribed genus
of duckbilled
dinosaur
from the Late Cretaceous
. It possibly was a lambeosaurine
, and may in fact be the same animal as Charonosaurus
. The fossil
s were found in Maastrichtian
-age rocks in Heilongjiang, China
. As a nomen nudum
, we cannot be certain of what it is supposed to be, but there also appears to be a connection to an obscure species called Mandschurosaurus jiayinensis
, named in 1983.
The "type species" is "H. jiayinensis", and it was coined in 2001 in a fauna
l list by Li and Jin.
Genus
In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...
of duckbilled
Hadrosaurid
Hadrosaurids or duck-billed dinosaurs are members of the family Hadrosauridae, and include ornithopods such as Edmontosaurus and Parasaurolophus. They were common herbivores in the Upper Cretaceous Period of what are now Asia, Europe and North America. They are descendants of the Upper...
dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
from the Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous period is divided in the geologic timescale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous series...
. It possibly was a lambeosaurine
Lambeosaurinae
Lambeosaurinae is a group of crested hadrosaurid dinosaurs.-Classification:Lambeosaurines have been split into Parasaurolophini and Corythosaurini . Corythosaurini and Parasaurolophini as terms entered the formal literature in Evans and Reisz's 2007 redescription of Lambeosaurus magnicristatus...
, and may in fact be the same animal as Charonosaurus
Charonosaurus
Charonosaurus |Charon]]'s lizard") is the name of a genus of dinosaur whose fossils were discovered by Godefroit, Zan & Jin in 2000 on the south bank of the Amur River, dividing China from Russia.-Description:...
. The fossil
Fossil
Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...
s were found in Maastrichtian
Maastrichtian
The Maastrichtian is, in the ICS' geologic timescale, the latest age or upper stage of the Late Cretaceous epoch or Upper Cretaceous series, the Cretaceous period or system, and of the Mesozoic era or erathem. It spanned from 70.6 ± 0.6 Ma to 65.5 ± 0.3 Ma...
-age rocks in Heilongjiang, China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
. As a nomen nudum
Nomen nudum
The phrase nomen nudum is a Latin term, meaning "naked name", used in taxonomy...
, we cannot be certain of what it is supposed to be, but there also appears to be a connection to an obscure species called Mandschurosaurus jiayinensis
Mandschurosaurus
Mandschurosaurus is a hadrosaur taxon based on material from the Upper Cretaceous of Belye Kruchi, Manchuria. M. amurensis is based on a poorly preserved and incomplete skeleton collected by Russian scientists in 1914 from the banks of the Amur River...
, named in 1983.
The "type species" is "H. jiayinensis", and it was coined in 2001 in a fauna
Fauna
Fauna or faunæ is all of the animal life of any particular region or time. The corresponding term for plants is flora.Zoologists and paleontologists use fauna to refer to a typical collection of animals found in a specific time or place, e.g. the "Sonoran Desert fauna" or the "Burgess shale fauna"...
l list by Li and Jin.