Shaochilong

Shaochilong (meaning "shark toothed dragon") is an extinct genus of tetanuran theropod dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian to Albian stages) Miaogou Formation of China, though a more restrictive suggestion from the Aptian to the Albian has been suggested based on faunal composition. It was usually described as a carcharodontosaurid, but other phylogenies have suggested a different position as a tyrannosauroid or as a member of polytomic allosauroid. The genus contains a single species, Shaochilong maortuensis, which was originally placed in the genus Chilantaisaurus as C. maortuensis, but was re-described and reclassified in 2009.

==History== The material referred to Shaochilong, IVPP V.2885.1-7, was found in the Miaogou Formation (Maortu locality; originally interpreted as the nearby Ulansuhai Formation). It consists of skull fragments (a braincase, partial skull roof, quadrates, and a right maxilla), axis and six caudal vertebrae. A fragmentary left maxilla was also referred to the species, although it has apparently gone missing as of 2009. Although these are believed to belong to a single individual, a lectotype was established in 2010 to accommodate for the possibility that the specimens came from multiple individuals. The lectotype consists of the braincase (IVPP V.2885.1) and partial skull roof (IVPP V.2885.2). All of these specimens were discovered in Inner Mongolia and described by Hu in 1964 as a species of Chilantaisaurus. The genus was informally named "Alashansaurus" by Chure in 2000.