Outline: a typical theropod
Zhongjianosaurus
"Zhongjian's lizard"
Type species Zhongjianosaurus yangi
- Lived
- 121 to 113 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Carnivore
- Group
- Theropods, Dromaeosauridae
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Xu and Qin 2017
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
115 million years ago
Field notes
About Zhongjianosaurus
What it was like
Zhongjianosaurus was one of the smallest raptors known, a feathered relative of Microraptor. It was tiny and lightly built.
Its world
It lived in the Early Cretaceous in what is now northeastern China. Its skeleton comes from rocks that also produced Microraptor and the beaked Psittacosaurus.
How it was found
Xu and Qin named Zhongjianosaurus in 2017, from a single find.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Dromaeosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: X. Xu and Z.-C. Qin. 2017. A new tiny dromaeosaurid dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Jehol Group of western Liaoning and niche differentiation among the Jehol dromaeosaurids. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 55(2):129-144