Xiyunykus (meaning "western claw"; "xiyu" is Mandarin for "west" and refers to Western China where it was found[1]) is a genus of alvarezsauroid theropod from the Early Cretaceous-aged Tugulu Group of what is now China. Only one species has been described, Xiyunykus pengi.[1]
| Xiyunykus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Scaled reconstruction | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Superfamily: | †Alvarezsauroidea |
| Genus: | †Xiyunykus Xu et al., 2018 |
| Type species | |
| †Xiyunykus pengi Xu et al., 2018 | |
Paleoecology
editDinosaurs contemporaneous with Xiyunykus in the Tugulu Group of Xinjiang include the stegosaur Wuerhosaurus, the coeval alvarezsaur Tugulusaurus, the carcharodontosaurid Kelmayisaurus, the dubious maniraptoran Phaedrolosaurus, the problematic coelurosaur Xinjiangovenator, and the ceratopsian Psittacosaurus xinjiangensis.[citation needed]
Evolutionary significance
editXiyunykus, along with Bannykus, fills a 70-million year gap in alvarezsaur evolution by exhibiting cranial and postcranial morphologies intermediate between the typical theropod forelimb of Haplocheirus and the highly reduced forelimbs and minute teeth of Late Cretaceous alvarezsaurids.[1]
References
edit- 1 2 3 Xu, Xing; Choiniere, Jonah; Tan, Qingwei; Benson, Roger B.J; Clark, James; Sullivan, Corwin; Zhao, Qi; Han, Fenglu; Ma, Qingyu; He, Yiming; Wang, Shuo; Xing, Hai; Tan, Lin (2018). "Two Early Cretaceous Fossils Document Transitional Stages in Alvarezsaurian Dinosaur Evolution". Current Biology. 28 (17): 2853–2860.e3. Bibcode:2018CBio...28E2853X. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2018.07.057. PMID 30146153.
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