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This was requested by
Dan Bensen. Enjoy.
:-) 8-D =8-)
Etymology- "Bohlin's Nanshiung lizard", Dr.
Bohlin being a paleontologist who collected dinosaur remains in Gansu
Province, and Nanshiung being the area the type species was found
in.
Now spelled Nanxiong (x being transcribed
in earlier times -- before 1979, I think -- as hs or sh, resembling both
and being neither).
Barremian, Early
Cretaceous
[lots of snippage]
The Xinminbao Group has recently been shown to be
Barremian, which is much earlier than the Maastrichtian sediments
Nanshiungosaurus brevispinus was found in.
Aha!
This specimen was between 5.8 and 7.8 meters
long, comparing the vertebral lengths with Alxasaurus. The upper
limit is close to the size of Therizinosaurus, so this is indeed one
of the largest segnosaurs, as mentioned by Dong and
Yu.
It was thought that
Therizinosaurus reached 12 m -- is this outdated?
The atlas is represented by an odontoid and the
neuropophyses. The odontoid is subcircular and fused to the dorsal half
of the axial centrum.
Interesting... Like in mammals. What a
convergence!
Nanshiungosaurus belongs to the
oviraptorosaur-segnosaur group (which desperately needs a
name!)
Hmmm... if it exists. Sereno puts it closer
to Ornithomimosauria all the time, and there are still people (like my 0.02 â
worth) going around who think segnosaurs are more probably
prosauropods...
Nanshiungosaurus bohlini is like
Beipiaosaurus and more basal than Alxasaurus and
Nanshiungosaurus brevispinus based on the presence of dorsal
pleurocoels.
[snip]
while the presence of dorsal pleurocoels would
argue against placement in the Therizinosauroidea.
As the extent of pneumatisation is heavily
influenced by ontogenetic age and the fossil record of (of? for? what's
correct?) segnosaurs isn't too good, couldn't we have found only subadults of
Therizinosauroidea?
Whatever, I can just admire where you get
all those papers from...
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