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Letters to Nature

Nature 419, 291-293 (19 September 2002) | doi:10.1038/nature00966; Received 4 April 2002; Accepted 26 June 2002

An unusual oviraptorosaurian dinosaur from China

Xing Xu1, Yen-Nien Cheng2, Xiao-Lin Wang1 & Chun-Hsiang Chang2

  1. Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology & Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 643, Beijing 100044, China
  2. Division of Geology, National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung, China

Correspondence to: Xing Xu1 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to X.X. (e-mail: Email: xing_xu@sina.com).

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Oviraptorosaurians are an unusual group of theropod dinosaurs, with highly specialized skulls1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Here we report a new oviraptorosaurian, Incisivosaurus gauthieri, gen. et sp. nov., from the lowest part of the Lower Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China. This oviraptorosaurian displays a number of characters closer to more typical theropods, such as a low skull and toothed jaws, thus greatly reducing the morphological gap between oviraptorosaurs and other theropods4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Incisivosaurus has a pair of premaxillary teeth resembling rodent incisors and small, lanceolate cheek teeth with large wear facets. These dental features were previously unknown among theropods and suggest a herbivorous diet. The new discovery provides a case of convergent evolution and demonstrates that non-avian theropods were much more diverse ecologically than previously suspected.

  • Theropoda Marsh, 1881
  • Maniraptora Gauthier, 1986
  • Oviraptorosauria Barsbold, 1976
  • Incisivosaurus gauthieri gen. et sp. nov.