Guanlong

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Guanlong
Fossil range: Late Jurassic

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Superfamily:	Tyrannosauroidea
Genus:	Guanlong Xu et al., 2006

Species

G. wucaii Xu et al., 2006 (type)

Guanlong (Simplified Chinese: 冠龙五彩; Hanyu Pinyin: guānlóng; means "crown dragon") was a genus of tyrannosauroid dinosaur, one of the earliest known examples of the lineage. About 3 metres (10 ft) long and 1.1 metres (4 ft) high at the hip, it lived 160 million years ago in the Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic period, 92 million years before its well-known relative Tyrannosaurus. This bipedal saurischian theropod shared many traits with its descendants, and also had some unusual ones, like a large crest on its head. Unlike later tyrannosaurs, Guanlong had three long fingers on its hands. Aside from its distinctive crest, it would have resembled its close relative Dilong, and like Dilong may have had a coat of primitive feathers. Guanlong would have lived along side a distantly related dinosaur with a similar crest, Monolophosaurus.

Guanlong was discovered in the Dzungaria area of China by scientists from George Washington University, and named by Xu Xing in 2006. Guanlong comes from the Chinese words for crown and dragon, referring to the crest. The specific epithet, wucaii (Hanyu Pinyin: wŭcái), means "five colours" and refers to the colours of rock of the Wucaiwan, the multi-hued badlands where the creature was found.

Image:Guanlong wucaii head.jpg

Guanlong head with alternative interpretation of the crest.

[edit] Specimens

At present, Guanlong is known from two specimens. The holotype is a reasonably complete, partially articulated adult skeleton. Another, immature specimen is known from fully articulated and nearly complete remains. The crest on the skull of the immature specimen is notably smaller and restricted to the forward portion of the snout, while the adult has a larger and more extensive crest (as pictured on the left). The crests of both specimens are thin, delicate structures that likely served as display organs.

[edit] References

Xu X., Clark, J.M., Forster, C. A., Norell, M.A., Erickson, G.M., Eberth, D.A., Jia, C., and Zhao, Q. (2006). "A basal tyrannosauroid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of China". Nature 439: 715-718.