Yinlong
Yinlong was one of the very first horned dinosaurs, even though it had no horns or frill! It lived during the Late Jurassic in what is now China, and it scampered around on two legs like a bird.21
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Fun facts
It had very short arms compared to its long legs, about 40% as long, so it walked on two feet.2
Yinlong's name comes from the movie 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', which was filmed near where its fossils were found.21
Seven smooth stones, called gastroliths, were found in its ribcage. They helped grind tough plants inside its belly.2
Its skull was deep and wide, and the back part was very broad, but it had no horns or bony frill like later relatives.21
Yinlong's teeth had a vertical wear facet with a little shelf, which is a special feature not seen in many other dinosaurs.2
Most asked questions about Yinlong
?How big was Yinlong?
Yinlong was a small dinosaur, about 1.2 metres (3.9 feet) long and weighed around 10 kilograms (22 pounds).13
?What did Yinlong eat?
Yinlong was an herbivore, meaning it ate plants. It had seven smooth stones called gastroliths in its belly that helped grind up tough plant material.1
?Did Yinlong have horns?
No, Yinlong had no horns or bony frill on its skull, even though it is one of the earliest horned dinosaurs (ceratopsians).1
?When did Yinlong live?
Yinlong lived during the Late Jurassic Period, about 158 million years ago. It is the oldest known ceratopsian dinosaur.13
?Where was Yinlong found?
Yinlong fossils were discovered in the Shishugou Formation in Xinjiang Province, China.1
?How did Yinlong get its name?
Yinlong means 'hidden dragon' in Chinese, and its name was inspired by the movie 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon', which was filmed near where its fossils were found.1
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Yinlong
- Named by
- Xu et al. 20064
- Group
- Horned dinos
- Family / clade
- Chaoyangsauridae4
- Classification
- Ornithischia > Ceratopsia4
- Age of the rocks
- 162 to 155 million years (Oxfordian)4
- Rock formations
- Shishugou4
- Countries
- China4
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
- Discovery
- Yinlong was named in 2006 by Xu Xing and colleagues, based on a nearly complete skeleton discovered in 2004 in the Shishugou Formation of Xinjiang, China.12
- Still debated
- Scientists are not sure exactly how Yinlong is related to other early horned dinosaurs, because it has features that look like both later ceratopsians and more primitive ornithischians.2
Where the facts come from
- Yinlong (en.wikipedia.org)
- A basal ceratopsian with transitional features from the Late Jurassic of northwestern China (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
- Yinlong | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)
- Yinlong in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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