''Bienosaurus'' (meaning "Bien's lizard") is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

thyreophora Thyreophora ("shield bearers", often known simply as "armored dinosaurs") is a group of armored ornithischian dinosaurs that lived from the Early Jurassic until the end of the Cretaceous. Thyreophorans are characterized by the presence of body ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

from the Lower

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...

(probably

Sinemurian In the geologic timescale, the Sinemurian is an age and stage in the Early or Lower Jurassic Epoch or Series. It spans the time between 199.3 ± 2 Ma and 190.8 ± 1.5 Ma (million years ago). The Sinemurian is preceded by the Hettangian and is ...

)

Lower Lufeng Formation The Lufeng Formation (formerly Lower Lufeng Series) is a Lower Jurassic sedimentary rock formation found in Yunnan, China. It has two units: the lower Dull Purplish Beds/Shawan Member are of Hettangian age, and Dark Red Beds/Zhangjia'ao Member ...

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

Province in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

Discovery and species

In 1938,

Bian Meinian BIAN or Bian may refer to: Place *Kaifeng, a prefecture-level city in eastern Henan province, People's Republic of China *Uiseong, former name Bian, county in North Gyeongsang province, South Korea *Bian, Hamadan, a village in Iran *Bian River (Chi ...

, known in the West as Mei Nien Bien, discovered a fragmentary dinosaur skull. In 2001,

Dong Zhiming Dong Zhiming (Chinese: 董枝明, Pinyin: ''Dǒng Zhimíng''; born January 1937) is a Chinese vertebrate paleontologist formerly employed at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing. He began working at the ...

named and described the specimen as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

''Bienosaurus lufengensis''. The generic name honours Bian. The specific name refers to the Lufeng formation. ''Bienosaurus'' is based on

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of several ...

IVPP V15311 (in 2001 incorrectly given the inventory number IVPP V 9612). It consists of a partial right lower jaw with teeth and several cranial fragments.

Phylogeny

Dong in 2001 placed ''Bienosaurus'' in the

Scelidosauridae ''Scelidosaurus'' (; with the intended meaning of "limb lizard", from Greek / meaning 'rib of beef' and ''sauros''/ meaning 'lizard')Liddell & Scott (1980). Greek-English Lexicon, Abridged Edition. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. is a gen ...

, considering these to be part of the

Ankylosauria Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the order Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms, similar to turtles. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. ...

. Later publications suggested a general position basal in the

Thyreophora Thyreophora ("shield bearers", often known simply as "armored dinosaurs") is a group of armored ornithischian dinosaurs that lived from the Early Jurassic until the end of the Cretaceous. Thyreophorans are characterized by the presence of body ...

. In 2019 a study confirmed this, concluding ''Bienosaurus'' was a ''

nomen dubium In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application. Zoology In case of a ''nomen dubium'' it may be impossible to determine whether a s ...

'', possibly identical to ''

Tatisaurus ''Tatisaurus'' is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur from the Early Jurassic from the Lower Lufeng Formation in Yunnan Province in China. Little is known as the remains are fragmentary. The type species is ''T. oehleri''. Discovery and species ...

'' from the same formation.Raven, T.J., Barrett, P.M., Xu, X., and Maidment, S.C.R. (2019). "A reassessment of the purported ankylosaurian dinosaur ''Bienosaurus lufengensis'' from the Lower Lufeng Formation of Yunnan, China". ''Acta Palaeontologica Polonica'' 64

References

Thyreophorans Sinemurian life Early Jurassic dinosaurs of Asia Jurassic China Fossils of China Paleontology in Yunnan Fossil taxa described in 2001 Taxa named by Dong Zhiming Ornithischian genera {{Jurassic-reptile-stub

Discovery and species

Phylogeny

See also

References