Taohelong

Taohelong is a genus of nodosaurid dinosaur known from Lower Cretaceous rocks in north-central China.

Taohelong
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 113–110 Ma
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Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Order: †Ornithischia
Family: †Nodosauridae
Subfamily: †Polacanthinae
Genus: †Taohelong
Yang et al., 2013
Type species
†Taohelong jinchengensis
Yang et al., 2013

Taohelong is based on Gansu Dinosaur Museum (GSDM) 00021, fossils including a tail vertebra, ribs, a left ilium (the main bone of the hip), and bony armor recovered from the Hekou Group in the Lanzhou-Minhe Basin. The animal's armor includes part of a "sacral shield", a carpet of osteoderms over the hips found in some other ankylosaurians. Taohelong was named and described in 2013 by Yang Jing-Tao, You Hai-Lu, Li Da-Qing, and Kong De-Lai. The type species is Taohelong jinchengensis. The generic name means "dragon (long) of the river (he) Tao". The specific name refers to the provenance at Jincheng.[1]

The describers established some diagnostic traits. The neural channel of the tail vertebra has a cross-section like an inverted trapezium. In top view the profile of the outer rim of the ilium is like a mirrored "S". The osteoderms of the sacral shield are irregular in both shape and size.[1]

Taohelong was placed in the Nodosauridae, more precisely in the Polacanthinae. Yang et al. performed a phylogenetic analysis and found Taohelong to be the sister taxon to Polacanthus foxii, making it the first polacanthine to be described from Asia.[1]

See also

References
  1. Yang J.-T.; You H.-L.; Li D.-Q.; Kong D.-L. (2013). "First discovery of polacanthine ankylosaur dinosaur in Asia" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica (in Chinese and English). 51 (4): 265–277.


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