Huaxiagnathus
Huaxiagnathus was a fast, meat-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now China. It was one of the biggest theropods found in the Jehol Group, almost twice as big as most other predators from that time and place.1
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as long as 3 house cats nose to tail🍌as long as 9 bananas end to end🏃could run 100 metres in 10 seconds (the fastest human needs 9.6)How big was Huaxiagnathus compared to YOU?
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Fun facts
Huaxiagnathus belonged to a group of small, quick dinosaurs called compsognathids. It was one of the largest compsognathids ever found.1
Scientists think Huaxiagnathus might actually be a young version of the bigger tyrannosauroid Sinotyrannus. If so, Huaxiagnathus would be the correct name because it was named first.2
The holotype skeleton is almost complete, missing only the tip of the tail. It is preserved on five large stone slabs.21
Like all compsognathids, Huaxiagnathus had short forelimbs and a fairly simple body plan for a coelurosaur.1
Two specimens of Huaxiagnathus are known, both immature individuals. The larger one was damaged during preparation and could not be used as the main example.2
Most asked questions about Huaxiagnathus
?How big was Huaxiagnathus?
About 1.8 metres long, which is larger than many other Jehol theropods and other compsognathids.21
?What did Huaxiagnathus eat?
It was a meat-eater. Partially digested bones of an unidentified vertebrate were found inside the holotype specimen.2
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Huaxiagnathus
- Named by
- Hwang et al. 20044
- Group
- Meat-eating dinos
- Family / clade
- Compsognathidae4
- Classification
- Theropoda > Compsognathidae4
- Age of the rocks
- 126 to 120 million years (Barremian / Aptian)4
- Rock formations
- Yixian4
- Countries
- China4
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
- Discovery
- Huaxiagnathus was named in 2004 by Sunny H. Hwang, Mark A. Norell, Ji Qiang and Gao Keqin. The first skeleton was found by farmers near Dabangou Village, Liaoning, China.12
- Still debated
- Scientists are not sure if Huaxiagnathus is really a compsognathid or a young tyrannosauroid. More fossils might solve this debate.2
Where the facts come from
- syp108.dvi (doc.rero.ch)
- Huaxiagnathus (en.wikipedia.org)
- PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
- Huaxiagnathus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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