Agilisaurus
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| Agilisaurus Conservation status: Fossil | ||||||||||||||||
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A. multidens |
Agilisaurus ("agile lizard") was a herbivorous dinosaur of the Sichuan Province of southern China that lived during the Bathonian and Callovian ages of the middle Jurassic. It was about 1.2 m (4 ft) in length and 0.6 m (2 ft) in height, with a weight of 13 kg (30 lb). The light body and length of the distal parts of the hind legs suggest that it was a fast runner.
The first fossils of Agilisaurus, from the species A. multidens were found while construction workers were excavating a site for a dinosaur museum in Zigong City, China. This was originally thought to be Yandusaurus, and the species now includes Othnielia multidens and Xiaosaurus multidens. A. louderbacki, the type species, was named by Peng in 1990 and is based on an almost complete skeleton, including the skull, which is the most complete ornithopod ever recovered in China. Originally Agilisaurus was placed in Hypsilophodontidae, but some paleontologists believe that it is a new family. It is also unclear whether A. multidens and A. louderbacki belong in the same genus. Whichever is proved to be correct, Agilisaurus was probably an ancestor of the iguanodonts and hadrosaurs.
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