| Xuwulong yueluni | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| Name | Xuwulong yueluni | |||
| Order | Ornithischia | |||
| Suborder | Cerapoda | |||
| Class | Reptilia | |||
| Name Translation | Nothingness? Dragon (in Chinese) | |||
| Period | Early Cretaceous period (130 million years ago) | |||
| Location | China (Asia) | |||
| Diet | Herbivore | |||
| Size | Unknown | |||
Xuwulong is an extinct genus of dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous period. It is a basal hadrosauriform which lived during the early Cretaceous period in what is now Yujingzi Basin in the Jiuquan area, Gansu Province of northwestern China. It is known from an articulated specimen including a complete cranium, almost complete axial skeleton, and complete left pelvic girdle from Xinminpu Group. Xuwulong was named by You Hailu, Li Daqing and Liu Weichang in 2011 and the type species is Xuwulong yueluni.
It is very basal and is close to the metataxon of hadrosaurs and iguanodonts. It was found in the Yujingzi Basin of Jiuquan area, Gansu Province of Northwestern China. It dated to the Early Cretaceous and lived with many other dinosaurs, including Sinornithosaurus. It was described by You Hailu, Li Daqing and Liu Weichang in 2011 off of an articulated specimen, including a complete cranium, an almost complete axial skeleton and a left pelvic girdle.
A Xuwulong mother with her babies
Distinguished by its unique lower jaw in having a V-shaped rostral end of the dentary in lateral view and a mandibular articular surface which levels with mid-height of the dentary ramus, as well as an enlarged and downturned prepubic process. Including Xuwulong, three basal hadrosauriforms have been discovered from the Early Cretaceous Xinminpu Group in the Mazongshan area, making it an important area to study the origin and early evolution of duck-billed dinosaurs.