Outline: a typical theropod
Jianianhualong
Type species Jianianhualong tengi
- Lived
- 126 to 120 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Troodontidae
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Xu et al. 2017
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
125 million years ago
Field notes
About Jianianhualong
What it was like
Jianianhualong was a small feathered troodontid. Its skeleton preserves feathers, including long tail feathers that were uneven in shape, like flight feathers. It suggests such feathers appeared before flight in this group.
Its world
It lived in the Early Cretaceous, in what is now China. It comes from the Yixian Formation, a land of lakes and forests shared with Yutyrannus, Sinosauropteryx and Psittacosaurus.
How it was found
Xu and colleagues named Jianianhualong in 2017. The type species is Jianianhualong tengi.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Troodontidae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: X. Xu, P. Currie, and M. Pittman, L. Xing, Q. Meng, J. Lü, D. Hu, C. Yu. 2017. Mosaic evolution in an asymmetrically feathered troodontid dinosaur with transitional features. Nature Communications 8:14972:1-12