Shuangbaisaurus

Shuangbaisaurus (meaning "Shuangbai reptile") is an extinct genus of theropod dinosaur, possibly a dilophosaurid, that lived in the Early Jurassic of Yunnan Province, China. It contains a single species, S. anlongbaoensis, represented by a partial skull. Like the theropods Dilophosaurus and Sinosaurus, the latter of which was its contemporary, Shuangbaisaurus bore a pair of thin, midline crests on its skull. Unusually, these crests extended backwards over the level of the eyes, which, along with the unusual orientation of the jugal bone, led the describers to name it as a new genus. However, Shuangbaisaurus also possesses a groove between its premaxilla and maxilla, a characteristic which has been used to characterize Sinosaurus as a genus. Among the two morphotypes present within the genus Sinosaurus, Shuangbaisaurus more closely resembles the morphotype that is variably treated as a distinct species, S. sinensis, in its relatively tall skull.

Shuangbaisaurus had a relatively robust (compared to Sinosaurus) skull, with a length of 54 centimetres (21 in) and a length/height ratio of 2.84, not including the thin paired crests that were present at least above the eye sockets. These crests are incompletely preserved, but appeared to have been formed mostly from the frontal bone, as well as possibly the postorbital and prefrontal bones. The crests may have extended further forward, over the nasal and lacrimal bones. Similar crests are seen in Dilophosaurus and Sinosaurus; however, the crests of Sinosaurus do not extend over the eyes, thus differentiating it from Shuangbaisaurus.