New Chinese thyreophoran (Crichton's "ankylosaur")

["Tim Williams" <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Apologies in advance if this has been mentioned before, but a new species of 
basal thyreophoran has been announced, from the Early Jurassic of China.  
CNN already had a story on this critter, but this article gives the name 
(presumably before publication, tut tut).

WARNING: This article features a _nomen nudum_.


http://www.msnbc.com/news/491426.asp?bt=nm&btu=http://www.msnbc.com/tools/newstools/d/news_menu.asp

      The man behind ?Jurassic Park? finally has a real-life dinosaur named 
after him: Bienosaurus crichtonii, an armored plant eater that lived about 
180 million years ago. ?For a person like me, this is much better than an 
Academy Award,? author Michael Crichton said.

      CRICHTON?S NOVEL about a dinosaur-cloning experiment gone awry 
spawned the movie ?Jurassic Park,? as well as a book-film sequel titled ?The 
Lost World.? Those works have gained immense popularity in China ? and that 
fame, in turn, inspired Chinese paleontologists to work Crichton?s name into 
the scientific designation for the newly identified species.
      The scientific name was announced Tuesday during a ceremony at the 
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, attended by Crichton and Dong 
Zhiming of Beijing?s Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and 
Paleoanthropology.
      ?We are living in the greatest era of dinosaur discovery in history,? 
Crichton said. ?And Dong Zhiming has discovered more of these fascinating 
creatures than anyone else. I?m honored that he?s named a new species for 
me.?
      Identification of the new species came after years of analysis 
conducted on an incomplete lower jaw and fragments of the skull. The fossils 
were found in 1938 in southern China?s fossil-rich Lufeng Basin by 
researcher Mai N. Bien ? which accounts for the ?Bienosaurus? part of the 
scientific name.
      Dong describes ?Crichton?s ankylosaurus? in a book titled ?Mesozoic 
Vertebrate Life,? to be published next summer. He believes the creature 
stood about 3 feet tall and most likely walked on its two hind legs. It had 
armor on its cheeks and a distinctive, curved row of small leaf-shaped 
teeth, he said.
      Bienosaurus lived in the Early Jurassic Period and thus appears to 
rank among the earliest armored dinosaurs.
      Dong presented casts of skull bones from the dinosaur to Crichton 
during the ceremony, and Crichton lent the casts to the ?Dinosaurs of 
Jurassic Park: The Lost World? traveling exhibit, which is on display at the 
museum through Jan. 15. The exhibit features dinosaur skeletons and props 
from the films, directed by Steven Spielberg.
      ?It?s fitting that a significant new Jurassic Period animal be named 
for the man who has done most to make ?Jurassic? a household word, and by 
the scientist who has named more dinosaurs than any researcher,? said ?Dino? 
Don Lessem, a dinosaur consultant who helped organize the event and the 
exhibit.
      Lessem is also involved in efforts to produce models of ?Jurassic 
Park? dinosaurs as well as Argentinosaurus, thought to be the biggest 
dinosaur yet to be identified.


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