Sanxiasaurus

Sanxiasaurus
Temporal range: Middle Jurassic, 170 Ma
Life reconstruction of Sanxiasaurus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Ornithischia
Clade: Neornithischia
Genus: Sanxiasaurus
Li et al., 2019
Type species
Sanxiasaurus modaoxiensis
Li et al., 2019

Sanxiasaurus (meaning "Sanxia lizard", after the Three Gorges, Chinese Sanxia, of the Yangtze River) is a genus of neornithischian dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Xintiangou Formation in the Chongqing Municipality of China. The type and only species is S. modaoxiensis.[1] The holotype is a partial postcranial skeleton consisting of "55 bones including two cervical vertebrae, 11 dorsal vertebrae, 4 sacral vertebrae, 18 caudal vertebrae, both humeri, radii and ulnas, partial right ilium, partial right ischium, both femora and tibiae, left fibula, 3 metatarsi and 4 phalanges." In a phylogenetic analysis, it was found to be a basal neornithischian, more derived than Lesothosaurus and less derived than Hexinlusaurus.

  1. ^ Li, Ning; Dai, Hui; Tan, Chao; Hu, Xufeng; Wei, Zhaoying; Lin, Yu; Wei, Guangbiao; Li, Deliang; Meng, Li; Hao, Baoqiao; You, Hailu; Peng, Guangzhou (2019). "A neornithischian dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Xintiangou Formation of Yunyang, Chongqing, China: the earliest record in Asia". Historical Biology. 33 (7): 1–14. doi:10.1080/08912963.2019.1679129. S2CID 209583081.