Tatisaurus

Taxobox
name = "Tatisaurus"
fossil_range = Early Jurassic
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Ornithischia
subordo = Thyreophora
genus = "Tatisaurus"
genus_authority = Simmons, 1965
subdivision_ranks = Species
subdivision =
*"T. oehleri" Simmons, 1965 (type)

"Tatisaurus" is a genus of dinosaur from the Early Jurassic from the Lower Lufeng Formation in Yunnan Province in China. Little is known as the remains are fragmentary.

Discovery and species

The type species, "Tatisaurus oehleri", was described in 1965 by Simmons, [Simmons DJ (1965), The non-therapsid reptiles of the Lufeng Basin, Yunnan, China. "Field Geol" 15; 1-93.] based on only a partial left mandible with teeth. Simmons felt its affinities were with primitive hypsilophodonts, though it had some features of an ankylosaurian. Later, in 1990. the specimen was reviewed by Dong Zhiming who noted it had similarities with "Huayangosaurus" and placed it in the same family, hence making it a stegosaurian.

Later still, in 1996, Lucas reclassified "Tatisaurus" as a member of the genus "Scelidosaurus". [Lucas SG. (1996). The thyreophoran dinosaur "Scelidosaurus" from the Lower Jurassic Lufeng Formation, Yunnan, China. pp. 81-85, in Morales, M. (ed.), The Continental Jurassic. "Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin" 60.] This has been regarded by David B. Norman and colleagues as unfounded. They instead consider it to be a dubious basal thyreophoran.cite journal |last=Norman |first=David B. |coauthors=Butler, Richard J.; and Maidment, Susannah C.R. |year=2007 |title=Reconsidering the status and affinities of the ornithischian dinosaur "Tatisaurus oehleri" Simmons, 1965 |journal=Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society |volume=150 |pages=865–874 |doi=10.1111/j.1096-3642.2007.00301.x ]

References

*cite book|author=Dong Zhiming|year=1992|title=Dinosaurian Faunas of China|publisher=China Ocean Press, Beijing|id=ISBN 3-540-52084-8

External links

* [http://www.users.qwest.net/~jstweet1/ornithischia.htm "Tatisaurus" at "Thescelosaurus"!] (scroll to Thyreophora "i.s.")