Agilisaurus
Sign in to saveAgilisaurus (; 'agile lizard') is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Period of what is now eastern Asia. The only named species is A. louderbacki, recovered from the Lower Shaximiao Formation of Sichuan, China. It was about in length, in hip height, and in weight. It has leaf-shaped teeth that were well-adapted to its abrasive, plant-based diet. Most surprisingly, the wavy enamel of the teeth of this genus (and all other ornithopods), presumed to make them more resistant to wear, was previously thought to be exclusive to hadrosaurs. This is also the case for Changchunsa
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6 sectionsContents
- Discovery and history
- Description
- Classification
- Paleobiology
- References
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Agilisaurus (; 'agile lizard') is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Period of what is now eastern Asia. The only named species is A. louderbacki, recovered from the Lower Shaximiao Formation of Sichuan, China. It was about in length, in hip height, and in weight. It has leaf-shaped teeth that were well-adapted to its abrasive, plant-based diet. Most surprisingly, the wavy enamel of the teeth of this genus (and all other ornithopods), presumed to make them more resistant to wear, was previously thought to be exclusive to hadrosaurs. This is also the case for Changchunsaurus from the Cretaceous Period.
==Discovery and history== left|thumb|Holotype specimen in Zigong Dinosaur Museum There is one named species (A. louderbacki), named after Dr. George Louderback, an American geologist and the first to recognize dinosaur fossils from the Sichuan Province of China in 1915. The holotype, which is the only known specimen, was discovered in 1984, during the construction of the Zigong Dinosaur Museum. Both genus and type species were named by Chinese paleontologist Peng Guangzhou in very brief fashion in 1990, then described in further detail by Peng in 1992.