Agilisaurus
Agilisaurus
- Lower Shaximiao lineup, Sichuan (China)
Agilisaurus ( Agilis, Latin for an agile bipedes animal ) is a ornithopoder dinosaur, whose fossil remains were found in 1984 during the construction of the foundations of the Zigong museum. They consist of a skull and skeleton almost completely preserved. It is one of the most complete skeletons of small ornithopods.
The only valid type is Agilisaurus louderbacki. The Style epithet was given in honor of the American geologist George D. Louderback, who sought the first scientist in 1915 Sichuan Basin by dinosaurs. Hexinlusaurus multidens was temporarily assigned as the second type ( A.multidens ) of the genus.
Features
Agilisaurus was about 1.2 meters long and probably weighed 40 kg. The skull was short and high, the eyes were large.
The mouth was filled with sheet-like, serrated teeth. Five teeth were sitting on the premaxilla, 14 on each maxilla and 20 on each dentary. The Prämaxillarzähne were pointed and enlarged. The tips of the teeth on maxilla and dentary were triangular or rhombic.
Agilisaurus 9 had cervical, 15 trunk, 5 sacral, and 44 caudal vertebrae. Neck and trunk were short, the tail is long and made of more than half the body length. The foot has the Phalangenformel 2.3.4.5.0.
System
Agilisaurus was originally assigned to the Fabrosauridae, a taxon that is no longer considered valid today. He was, as is evident in the following cladogram, as the most basal standing Euornithopode.
Thyreophora
Agilisaurus
Other taxa
Marginocephalia
In a recent study it is outside the Cerapoda and no longer belongs to the group ornithopods. The new systematic position cladogram shows the following:
Thyreophora
Agilisaurus
Ornithopods
Marginocephalia