Crichtonpelta

Crichtonpelta Temporal range: Cenomanian - Turonian
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Dinosauria
Order:	†Ornithischia
Family:	†Ankylosauridae
Genus:	†Crichtonpelta Arbour & Currie, 2014
Species:	†C. benxiensis
Binomial name
Crichtonpelta benxiensis (Lü et al., 2007)

Crichtonpelta is a genus of extinct herbivorous ankylosaurid dinosaur from the Cretaceous of China.

In 2007, Lü Junchang, Ji Qiang, Gao Yubo and Li Zhixin named and described a second species of Crichtonsaurus: Crichtonsaurus benxiensis. The specific name refers to the Benxi Geological Museum.

The holotype, BXGMV0012, is a skull found near Beipiao in a layer of the Sunjiawan Formation probably dating from the Albian. Specimen BXGMV0012-1, a skeleton lacking the skull, discovered in the same quarry as the holotype, was referred to the species. Furthermore, a skeleton with skull, displayed by the Sihetun Fossil Museum as a Crichtonsaurus bohlini specimen, was in 2014 referred to Crichtonpelta.

In 2014, Victoria Megan Arbour determined Crichtonsaurus were a nomen dubium. Therefore, she named a separate genus for its second species: Crichtonpelta. The generic name combines a reference to Michael Crichton, the author of Jurassic Park, with a Greek πέλτη, peltè, "small shield". At the time this was an invalid nomen ex dissertatione. However, in 2015, Crichtonpelta was validly named by Arbour and Philip John Currie. The type species is Crichtonsaurus benxiensis; the combinatio nova is Crichtonpelta benxiensis. There was a possibility that, though Crichtonsaurus bohlini was a nomen dubium, its fossil material in fact belonged to Crichtonpelta. Arbour however, noted clear differences in the scapula and humerus between BXGMV0012-1 and LPM 101, a specimen previously referred to Crichtonsaurus bohlini: the scapula of the former has a tab-like acromion and its humerus a much longer deltopectoral crest.

...
Wikipedia