Feb 8
I love you Yixian Formation, keep giving us more beautiful perfect dinosaurs forever.
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I love you Yixian Formation, keep giving us more beautiful perfect dinosaurs forever.
DMM ROUND FOUR MASTERPOST
ORNITHISCHIAN FINAL MATCHUP:
Changmiania vs Jakapil
SAUROPODOMORPH FINAL MATCHUP:
Kholumolumo vs Bajadasaurus
NON-NEORNITHINE THEROPOD FINAL MATCHUP:
Berthasaura vs Caihong
NEORNITHINE FINAL MATCHUP:
Vorombe vs Heracles
REBLOG! SHARE! DEBATE!
IT'S DINOSAUR MARCH MADNESS!
Daliansaurus & Changmiania, the big talon with sleepy burrower.
Round One: Sanxiasaurus vs Changmiania
Sanxiasaurus (left) or Changmiania (right)?
Sanxiasaurus
Changmiania
Factfiles:
Sanxiasaurus modaoxiensis
Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @i-draws-dinosaurs
Meaning: Sanxia lizard (after the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River) from Modaoxi (first tributary of the Yangtze)
Time: 170 million years (possibly Aalenian stage of the Middle Jurassic)
Location: Xintiangou Formation, Chongqing, China
Sanxiasaurus is a little ornithischian dinosaur named in 2019. Specifically, it’s a basal neornithischian, a group whose name has been known to induce spontaneous headaches among palaeontologists. Neornithischia is the group that includes ceratopsians, hadrosaurs, and many earlier forms, but the base of the group contains a whole truckload of little scampery bipedal critters who have proven very difficult to organise into a stable family tree. Sanxiasaurus seems to be one of the most basal of the group, and is actually the oldest ornithischian currently known from Asia! Living in the Xintiangou Formation, Sanxiasaurus shared its environment with lungfish, ray finned fish, sharks, temnospondyls, saruopterygians, crocodyliformes, turtles, and the theropod Yunyangosaurus, which was probably its main predator.
Changmiania liaoningensis
Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @zygodactylus
Name Meaning: Eternal Sleeper from Liaoning
Time: 125.755 million years ago (Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous)
Location: Lujiatun Beds, Yixian Formation, Liaoning, China
Changmiania is a gorgeously preserved ornithopod known from the earliest time of the famed Yixian Formation, adding it to the ranks of amazing fossils known from this unique preservational environment. The multiple specimens of this species are found in sleeping poses, curled up on the ground with their legs and arms tucked up against them. This indicates they had been buried alive, possibly inside their own burrows. Given the depositional environment of Yixian is a sort of prehistoric Pompeii, with many dinosaurs covered very quickly in ash and dust from an exploding volcano, this makes a certain degree of sense - perhaps the two little dinosaurs had scurried into their burrow to escape the oncoming tragedy (sorry if I just made you sad), or had been asleep and unaware of the oncoming danger. At only one meter long and less than half a meter tall, Changmiania would have been easily missed in its environment, hiding among the dense vegetation from potential predators. With robust leg bones, it would have been a fast runner, able to move efficiently through the crowded undergrowth. It had a weirdly short neck for ornithischians, and that combined with its short forearms and hands indicates it was fossorial - ie, a digging animal, hence its burrow home and final resting place. Given they were found together, they were probably social creatures as well, living in small family groups. The Yixian was a dense temperate forest, filled with freshwater lakes and a great diversity of plantlife. Conifers, ferns, cycads, horsetails, and early flowering plants filled the environment and indicated a humid, possibly rainforest environment. Periodic wildfires, noxious lake gasses, and volcanic eruptions all lead to regular moments of rapid burial and amazing preservation in this environment - essentially giving us snapshots of how it changed over the course of many millions of years. In the Lujiatun bed specifically, Changmiania was neighbors with Euhelopus, Jeholosaurus, Liaoceratops, Psittacosaurus, Liaoningornis, Daliansaurus, Graciliraptor, Mei, Sinovenator, Sinusonasus, Dilong, Hexing, Incisivosaurus, Shenzhousaurus, and outside of dinosaurs mammals such as Acristatherium, Gobiconodon, Juchilestes, Maotherium, Meemannodon, and Repenomamus (yes, THAT Repenomamus), and the toad Liaobatrachus.
DMM Round One Masterpost
Round Four: Changmiania vs Jakapil
Changmiania liaoningensis
Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @zygodactylus
Name Meaning: Eternal Sleeper from Liaoning
Time: 125.755 million years ago (Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous)
Location: Lujiatun Beds, Yixian Formation, Liaoning, China
Changmiania is a gorgeously preserved ornithopod known from the earliest time of the famed Yixian Formation, adding it to the ranks of amazing fossils known from this unique preservational environment. The multiple specimens of this species are found in sleeping poses, curled up on the ground with their legs and arms tucked up against them. This indicates they had been buried alive, possibly inside their own burrows. Given the depositional environment of Yixian is a sort of prehistoric Pompeii, with many dinosaurs covered very quickly in ash and dust from an exploding volcano, this makes a certain degree of sense - perhaps the two little dinosaurs had scurried into their burrow to escape the oncoming tragedy (sorry if I just made you sad), or had been asleep and unaware of the oncoming danger. At only one meter long and less than half a meter tall, Changmiania would have been easily missed in its environment, hiding among the dense vegetation from potential predators. With robust leg bones, it would have been a fast runner, able to move efficiently through the crowded undergrowth. It had a weirdly short neck for ornithischians, and that combined with its short forearms and hands indicates it was fossorial - ie, a digging animal, hence its burrow home and final resting place. Given they were found together, they were probably social creatures as well, living in small family groups. The Yixian was a dense temperate forest, filled with freshwater lakes and a great diversity of plantlife. Conifers, ferns, cycads, horsetails, and early flowering plants filled the environment and indicated a humid, possibly rainforest environment. Periodic wildfires, noxious lake gasses, and volcanic eruptions all lead to regular moments of rapid burial and amazing preservation in this environment - essentially giving us snapshots of how it changed over the course of many millions of years. In the Lujiatun bed specifically, Changmiania was neighbors with Euhelopus, Jeholosaurus, Liaoceratops, Psittacosaurus, Liaoningornis, Daliansaurus, Graciliraptor, Mei, Sinovenator, Sinusonasus, Dilong, Hexing, Incisivosaurus, Shenzhousaurus, and outside of dinosaurs mammals such as Acristatherium, Gobiconodon, Juchilestes, Maotherium, Meemannodon, and Repenomamus (yes, THAT Repenomamus), and the toad Liaobatrachus.
Jakapil kaniukura
Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @zygodactylus
Name Meaning: Deep Jawed Shield Bearer
Time: 99 to 97 million years ago (Cenomanian stage of the Late Cretaceous)
Location: Candeleros Formation, Neuquen and Mendoza, Argentina
Jakapil is to nonavian dinosaurs as Annakacygna is to birds. This may seem extreme - what could possibly top the cup zoomy swan of filter feeding death - but Jakapil is a weird little dude. It was a bipedal armored dinosaur, similar to the Early Jurassic basal form Scutellosaurus - except, you’ll note, it lived a hundred million years later. At about 1.5 meters long, it was a small dinosaur, again similar to its relative from so long ago. It had rows of osteoderms on its body, and a predentary - unlike other early thyreophorans. It may have diverged from the main thyreophoran group in the Sinemurian, representing a lost lineage of bipedal armored forms that persisted (presumably in South America). However, its classification is a major debate among researchers - many features of the jaw are more similar to Ceratopsians than to Thyreophorans, indicating it may be an armored variant of an early Ceratopsian (which, would be, to say the least, wild) or a completely new clade of Ornithischian altogether! The large amount of wear on its teeth indicates it chewed its food, rather than sheering or chopping it - something only found in a few Ornithischian groups. It lived in a large desert environment, peppered with oases, and filled with a variety of other animals - fish, frogs, tuatara, snakes, turtles, mammals, and other dinosaurs like Andesaurus, Ekrixinatosaurus, Giganotosaurus, Buitreraptor, Alnashetri, and Bicentenaria.
Changmiania or Jakapil?
Changmiania
Jakapil
Round Three: Changmiania vs Bisticeratops
Changmiania liaoningensis
Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @zygodactylus
Name Meaning: Eternal Sleeper from Liaoning
Time: 125.755 million years ago (Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous)
Location: Lujiatun Beds, Yixian Formation, Liaoning, China
Changmiania is a gorgeously preserved ornithopod known from the earliest time of the famed Yixian Formation, adding it to the ranks of amazing fossils known from this unique preservational environment. The multiple specimens of this species are found in sleeping poses, curled up on the ground with their legs and arms tucked up against them. This indicates they had been buried alive, possibly inside their own burrows. Given the depositional environment of Yixian is a sort of prehistoric Pompeii, with many dinosaurs covered very quickly in ash and dust from an exploding volcano, this makes a certain degree of sense - perhaps the two little dinosaurs had scurried into their burrow to escape the oncoming tragedy (sorry if I just made you sad), or had been asleep and unaware of the oncoming danger. At only one meter long and less than half a meter tall, Changmiania would have been easily missed in its environment, hiding among the dense vegetation from potential predators. With robust leg bones, it would have been a fast runner, able to move efficiently through the crowded undergrowth. It had a weirdly short neck for ornithischians, and that combined with its short forearms and hands indicates it was fossorial - ie, a digging animal, hence its burrow home and final resting place. Given they were found together, they were probably social creatures as well, living in small family groups. The Yixian was a dense temperate forest, filled with freshwater lakes and a great diversity of plantlife. Conifers, ferns, cycads, horsetails, and early flowering plants filled the environment and indicated a humid, possibly rainforest environment. Periodic wildfires, noxious lake gasses, and volcanic eruptions all lead to regular moments of rapid burial and amazing preservation in this environment - essentially giving us snapshots of how it changed over the course of many millions of years. In the Lujiatun bed specifically, Changmiania was neighbors with Euhelopus, Jeholosaurus, Liaoceratops, Psittacosaurus, Liaoningornis, Daliansaurus, Graciliraptor, Mei, Sinovenator, Sinusonasus, Dilong, Hexing, Incisivosaurus, Shenzhousaurus, and outside of dinosaurs mammals such as Acristatherium, Gobiconodon, Juchilestes, Maotherium, Meemannodon, and Repenomamus (yes, THAT Repenomamus), and the toad Liaobatrachus.
Bisticeratops froeseorum
Artwork by sauriazoicillus, written by @zygodactylus
Name Meaning: Froese’s Dééł Náázíní Horned Face
Time: 74 million years ago (Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous)
Location: Farmington Member, Kirtland Formation, New Mexico, United States
Bisticeratops is an early Chasmosaurine, known from a partial skull found in the Kirtland Formation. Yet another of a largely growing number of Chasmosaurine taxa from the Campanian of North America, it appeared to resemble Pentaceratops, but was more closely related to later ceratopsians known from the Kirtland formation, as well as one unnamed taxon from the Almond Formation in Wyoming. Interestingly, Bisticeratops shows signs of bite marks from tyrannosaurids, which apparently had begun to heal prior to death. However, we do not know which tyrannosaurid may have left these marks - while the Kirtland Formation is a well studied environment, the Farmington Member has never yielded dinosaurian fossils before now, taking place earlier than the more famous De-Na-Zin of the formation. Like other iterations, the Kirtland was a coastal plain along the western interior seaway, preserving a muddy and sandy environment that would have been filled with a variety of subtropical plants. It is presumable that other dinosaurs lived here besides Bisticeratops and a tyrannosaurid - hadrosaurs, ankylosaurs, pachycephalosaurs, ornithomimosaurs, and dromaeosaurs would all have been possible members of this ecosystem based on the following and preceding ones from this formation.
Changmiania or Bisticeratops?
Changmiania
Bisticeratops
Round Two: Changmiania vs Sinocephale
Changmiania liaoningensis
Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @zygodactylus
Name Meaning: Eternal Sleeper from Liaoning
Time: 125.755 million years ago (Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous)
Location: Lujiatun Beds, Yixian Formation, Liaoning, China
Changmiania is a gorgeously preserved ornithopod known from the earliest time of the famed Yixian Formation, adding it to the ranks of amazing fossils known from this unique preservational environment. The multiple specimens of this species are found in sleeping poses, curled up on the ground with their legs and arms tucked up against them. This indicates they had been buried alive, possibly inside their own burrows. Given the depositional environment of Yixian is a sort of prehistoric Pompeii, with many dinosaurs covered very quickly in ash and dust from an exploding volcano, this makes a certain degree of sense - perhaps the two little dinosaurs had scurried into their burrow to escape the oncoming tragedy (sorry if I just made you sad), or had been asleep and unaware of the oncoming danger. At only one meter long and less than half a meter tall, Changmiania would have been easily missed in its environment, hiding among the dense vegetation from potential predators. With robust leg bones, it would have been a fast runner, able to move efficiently through the crowded undergrowth. It had a weirdly short neck for ornithischians, and that combined with its short forearms and hands indicates it was fossorial - ie, a digging animal, hence its burrow home and final resting place. Given they were found together, they were probably social creatures as well, living in small family groups. The Yixian was a dense temperate forest, filled with freshwater lakes and a great diversity of plantlife. Conifers, ferns, cycads, horsetails, and early flowering plants filled the environment and indicated a humid, possibly rainforest environment. Periodic wildfires, noxious lake gasses, and volcanic eruptions all lead to regular moments of rapid burial and amazing preservation in this environment - essentially giving us snapshots of how it changed over the course of many millions of years. In the Lujiatun bed specifically, Changmiania was neighbors with Euhelopus, Jeholosaurus, Liaoceratops, Psittacosaurus, Liaoningornis, Daliansaurus, Graciliraptor, Mei, Sinovenator, Sinusonasus, Dilong, Hexing, Incisivosaurus, Shenzhousaurus, and outside of dinosaurs mammals such as Acristatherium, Gobiconodon, Juchilestes, Maotherium, Meemannodon, and Repenomamus (yes, THAT Repenomamus), and the toad Liaobatrachus.
Sinocephale bexelli
Artwork by @i-draws-dinosaurs, written by @zygodactylus
Name Meaning: Bexel’s Chinese Head
Time: 92 million years ago (Cenomanian stage of the Late Cretaceous)
Location: Ulansuhai Formation, Inner Mongolia, China
Sinocephale is an interesting case of a previously named dinosaur being renamed - and then given a new one altogether! Though originally discovered in the early 20th century and lumped into Troodon (pachycephalosaurs used to be considered Troodontids, don’t worry about it), and then shoved into Stegoceras when that whole nonsense got fixed. Unfortunately, Sinocephale really doesn’t resemble Stegoceras much at all! Shoved into dubious or not properly named genera for the petter part of multiple decades, it was only recently that it was studied and raised as a holotype for a new genus - Sinocephale! As a pachycephalosaur, it was a small bipedal animal, with a weirdly hyper-stiffened tail, and a dome on its head. Interestingly for Sinocephale, that dome was shaped like a heart (from above)! This is the distinct trait that distinguishes Sinocephale from its relatives. It was not closely related to Stegoceras at all, but closer to Sphaerotholus and the Pachycephalosaurus group. While Sinocephale lived in a somewhat poorly understood geological formation, we do know it lived alongside other dinosaurs such as Shaochilong, Sinornithomimus, and Chilantaisaurus, as well as some turtles.
Changmiania or Sinocephale?
Changmiania
Sinocephale