Lukousaurus Temporal range: Early Jurassic 196.5 - 189.5 Ma |
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Skull | |
Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Sauropsida |
Infraclass: | Archosauromorpha |
Superorder: | ?Dinosauria |
Order: | ?Saurischia |
Suborder: | ?Theropoda |
Infraorder: | ?Ceratosauria |
Genus: |
Lukousaurus Young, 1940 |
Binomial name | |
Lukousaurus yini Young, 1940 |
Lukousaurus is a taxon based on most of a small skull’s snout, displaying distinctive lachrymal horns, found in the Early Jurassic-age Lower Lufeng Formation, Yunnan, China and was described by Chung Chien Young in 1940. The generic name refers to the Lugou Bridge, lit. “crossroads”, near Beijing, where the Sino-Japanese War started. L. yini is tentatively classified as a theropod dinosaur by some allied to ceratosaurs, by others a coelurosaur. Its skull is rather robust for its size though the teeth were described by the author as typically theropodan. It may, however, be a crurotarsan or a primitive crocodilian.