''Napaisaurus'' is a genus of

iguanodontian Iguanodontia (the iguanodonts) is a clade of herbivorous dinosaurs that lived from the Middle Jurassic to Late Cretaceous. Some members include ''Camptosaurus'', ''Dryosaurus'', ''Iguanodon'', ''Tenontosaurus'', and the hadrosaurids or "duck-b ...

ornithopod Ornithopoda () is a clade of ornithischian dinosaurs, called ornithopods (), that started out as small, bipedal running grazers and grew in size and numbers until they became one of the most successful groups of herbivores in the Cretaceous world ...

dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous

Xinlong Formation The Xinlong Formation (sometimes called the "Napai Formation", or misspelt as "Napan Formation") is an Early Cretaceous geologic formation in Guangxi, southern China.Guangxi Guangxi (; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternately romanized as Kwanghsi; ; za, Gvangjsih, italics=yes), officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region (GZAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the People's Republic ...

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 ...

. The type and only species is ''Napaisaurus guangxiensis''.

Discovery and naming

The holotype of ''Napaisaurus'' is a right ilium and ischium discovered in 2020. Its mix of diagonstic characters led Ji & Zhang to name it as a new genus and species in 2021; the final article version was published in 2022. The generic name refers to the Napai Basin which the holotype locality is part of, and the specific name refers to the province where it was found.

References

Iguanodonts Ornithischian genera Early Cretaceous dinosaurs of Asia Cretaceous China Fossil taxa described in 2021 {{Ornithopod-stub