| Xuwulong | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Restored skeleton | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | †Ornithischia |
| Clade: | †Ornithopoda |
| Superfamily: | †Hadrosauroidea |
| Genus: | †Xuwulong You, Li & Liu,2011[1] |
| Species: | †X. yueluni |
| Binomial name | |
| †Xuwulong yueluni You, Li & Liu, 2011 | |
Xuwulong is agenus ofhadrosauroiddinosaur from theEarly Cretaceousperiod of what is now Yujingzi Basin in the Jiuquan area,Gansu Province of northwesternChina. It is known from theholotype, GSGM F00001, an articulated specimen including a completecranium, almost complete axialskeleton, and complete leftpelvic girdle recovered from theXinminbao Group.Xuwulong was named by You Hailu, Li Daqing, and Liu Weichang in2011, and thetype species isXuwulong yueluni; the binomial name as a whole refers to Professor Wang Yue-lun; "Xu-wu" is hiscourtesy name.
Expeditions into theGansu Province of northwestern China began with theSino-Swedish Expedition of 1930 to 1931, where discoveries of dinosaurs including the now-dubious early ceratopsianMicroceratops sulcidens. These discoveries were followed by occasional observations of dinosaur bones in the HouhongquanBasin in the 1960s, and then the Gongpoquan Basin in 1986. Such observations led to theChina-Canada Dinosaur Project taking a reconnaissance trip to the Gongpoquan Basin in 1988, but no further expeditions were led until theSino-Japanese Silk Road Dinosaur Expedition of 1992 and 1993, led by Chinese paleontologyDong Zhiming of theInstitute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) and Japanese paleontologstYoichi Azuma of theFukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum (FPDM). The Sino-Japanese Dinosaur Project discovered the new early ceratopsianArchaeoceratops, based on askull and two partialskeletons, as well as many of the unique genera that form theMazongshan Dinosaur Fauna of theEarly Cretaceous of Gansu. Collaborations on the paleontology of the Mazongshan area continued with the Sino-American Mazongshan Dinosaur Project of 1997 to 2000, where theUniversity of Pennsylvania,Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the IVPP collaborated. The Sino-American Dinosaur Project noticed the Yujingzi Basin in 1999 as a potential dinosaur-bearing locality, with the first dinosaur fossils discovered in 2000 by team members including Chinese paleontologist You Hailu of the Institute of Geology ofChinese Academy of Geological Sciences (CAGS).[2] You began collaborations with Chinese paleontologist Li Daqing of the Fossil Research and Development Center (FRDC) of Gansu Province in 2004, beginning excavations in the Yujingzi Basin and continuing those in the Gongpoquan Basin.[2]
Since the initial discoveries in the Yujingzi Basin, multiple new dinosaurs have been found, including the 2006 discovery of a partially complete articulated skull and skeleton, given the field number GSJB06-17-04. This specimen, now in the Gansu Geological Museum as GSGM-F00001, was then described in2011 by You, Li, and Liu Weichang as theholotype of the new taxonXuwulong yueluni. Thegenus name is in honour of the pioneering geologist of the Gansu Province Wang Yue-lun, known by hiscourtesy name "Xu-wu", with thespecies name also in honour of Yue-lun.[1] The Early Cretaceous deposits of the Yujingzi Basin are fromXinminpu Group, with three distinctfacies, of which only the middle greysandstone preservesXuwulong.[2] Carbon isotopes from the Yujingzi Basin sediments show sediments of the area are correlated to theocean anoxic event named thePaquier Event, spanning the lateAptian to earlyAlbian.Radiometric dating of theXiagou Formation andZhonggou Formation elsewhere allows the sediments of the Yujingzi Basin to be identified, with the lower gray to green-graymudstones andsiltstones being the Xiagou Formation, while the red sandstones are the base of the Zhonggou.Xuwulong can be placed in the upper Aptian in the Xiagou Formation through these correlations.[2][3]
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