Kelmayisaurus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous |
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Maxilla and dentary | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Reptilia |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Order: | Saurischia |
Suborder: | Theropoda |
Family: | †Carcharodontosauridae |
Genus: |
†Kelmayisaurus Dong, 1973 |
Species | |
Kelmayisaurus is an extinct genus of carcharodontosaurid theropod dinosaur from the early Cretaceous. It was roughly 9-11 meters (30-36 feet) Its name refers to the petroleum-producing city of Karamay in the Xinjiang province of western China near where it was found.
Kelmayisaurus is known from the holotype and only specimen IVPP V 4022. It consists of a complete left dentary (lower jaw with teeth) and partial left maxilla. The specimen was found in the Lianmugin Formation of the Tugulu Group, dating to the ?Valanginian-Albian stages, around 140 to 100 million years ago. The discovery locality is near Wuerho in the Junggar Basin. It was first named and described by Chinese paleontologist Dong Zhiming in 1973 and the type species is Kelmayisaurus petrolicus. A supposed second species, K. "gigantus", was mentioned by Grady in a children book in 1993 as a gigantic vertebral column coming from a 22 m long specimen, but is a nomen nudum and probably does not pertain to Kelmayisaurus. It may be a sauropod instead.