Tianchisaurus
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
Extinct (fossil)
|
||||||||||||||||||
| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||
| Tianchiasaurus nedegoapeferima Dong, 1993 |
Tianchisaurus ("heavenly pool lizard") is a genus of ankylosaurian dinosaur from the middle Jurassic Period (Bajocian-Bathonian stages) of China. If it truly belongs to the family Ankylosauridae as proposed by Dong Zhiming, it would be the earliest member of that family. Unlike other ankylosaurids, it lacked a bony club at the tip of its tail.
The type specimen was informally referred to as "Jurassosaurus" after the 1993 film Jurassic Park, and the binomial T. nedegoapeferima is formed from the surnames of the film's main stars: Sam Neil, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Sir Richard Attenborough, Bob Peck, Martin Ferrero, Ariana Richards, and Joseph Mazzello. Director Steven Spielberg, who has funded Chinese dinosaur research, proposed the name. Dong Zhiming ultimately discarded the genus name "Jurassosaurus" (which is now a nomen nudum) in favor of Tianchiasaurus, but retained the species name honoring the actors.
 |
This dinosaur-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
