PRELIMINARY STUDY OF A DIVERSE DINOSAUR ASSEMBLAGE FROM THE UPPER CRETACEOUS OF ZHUZHOU,HUNAN PROVINCE
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Abstract:
Numerous dinosaur eggs have been discovered in the Upper Cretaceous of South China，but previously documented dinosaur bones are relati-vely rare in these strata and represent a small number of taxa．Here we present the first detailed study of dinosaur body fossils from the Upper Cretaceous Daijiaping Formation of the Tianyuan district，Zhuzhou，Hunan Province，China．This dinosaur assemblage contains diverse taxa，possi-bly including at least two sauropods，three thero-pods and one hadrosaurid．Some sauropod material can be tentatively assigned to Diplodocoidea，which represents limited but suggestive evidence that diplodocoids occur in Asia． One sauropod ischium appears to show derived features of Titanosauria，although more evidence is needed to support referral to this clade．The theropod sample consists entirely of teeth，but may include a small coelurosaur (e．g．a dromaeosaurid)，a tyranno-sauroid and a carcharodontosaurid．Small coelurosaurs and tyrannosauroids are fairly common in the Upper Cretaceous of northern continents，whereas carcharodontosaurids have a comparatively poor record．The multitaxic dino-saur assemblage from Zhuzhou suggests this part of China was home to a richer Cretaceous fauna than previously believed，and may have been one of the last places where diplodocoids and carcharo-dontosaurids persisted． The Zhuzhou dinosaurs thus have important implications for the study of Asian， and particularly Chinese， dinosaur biogeographic investigation．
