| Siluosaurus | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia |
| Genus: | †Siluosaurus Dong, 1997 |
| Species: | †S. zhanggiani |
| Binomial name | |
| †Siluosaurus zhanggiani Dong, 1997 | |
Siluosaurus (meaning "Silu (Chinese forSilk Road, referring to the discovery location)lizard"[1]) is agenus ofornithischiandinosaur from theEarly Cretaceous (Barremian-Albian)Xinminbao Group ofGansu,China. It is based on the specimenIVPP V.11117 (1-2), which consists of twoteeth. It is an obscure genus, with no papers doing more than mentioning it since it was described in 1997.[1] The type species isS. zhanggiani.[1]
The holotype teeth ofSiluosaurus were recovered during the 1992Sino-JapaneseSilk Road Dinosaur Expedition in the lower portion of the Xinminbao Group. One tooth, seven millimetres long, was from the upper beak (premaxilla), and the other, 3.7 millimetres high, was from the cheek region of the upper jaw (maxilla).Dong Zhiming, who named the genus in 1997, suggested that it was ahypsilophodontid, and described the teeth as the smallest ornithopod teeth yet known. Thetype species isSiluosaurus zhanggiani. Thespecific name honoursZhang Qian, the Chinese diplomat who reconnoitred the Silk Road in the second century B.C.[1] It was regarded without comment as adubious name in the most recent review ofbasal ornithopods,[2] a not-uncommon fate for dinosaur names based on teeth. Fonseca et al. (2024) recovered this genus as an indeterminate member ofCerapoda in their supplementary material.[3]
As a hypsilophodontid or other basal ornithopod,Siluosaurus would have been abipedalherbivore. Its size has not been estimated, but as most adult hypsilophodonts were 1–2 meters (3.3–6.6 ft) long,[2] this genus would have been of similar to smaller size, based on Dong's comments.
