Outline: a typical early ornithischian
Tianyulong
tyen-yoo-LONG
"Tianyu dragon"
- Lived
- 168 to 152 million years ago, Middle Jurassic to Late Jurassic
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Early ornithischians, Heterodontosauridae
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Zheng et al. 2009
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
160 million years ago
Field notes
About Tianyulong
What it was like
Tianyulong was a small plant eater from the heterodontosaurid family, with teeth of different shapes, including tusk-like teeth at the front of its jaws. Its fossil shows long, stiff filaments along its back and tail.
These filaments were a surprise, because Tianyulong was a bird-hipped dinosaur, far from the line that led to birds. They suggest that simple fuzz may have been widespread among dinosaurs.
Its world
It lived in the Jurassic in what is now China. Its rocks come from the Tiaojishan Formation, which also holds the feathered Anchiornis, the bat-winged Yi and the rainbow-colored Caihong.
How it was found
Zheng and colleagues named it in 2009 from one skeleton. The name honors the museum that holds the fossil.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Heterodontosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: X.-T. Zheng, H.-L. You, and X. Xu, Z.-M. Dong. 2009. An Early Cretaceous heterodontosaurid dinosaur with filamentous integumentary structures. Nature 458:333-336