Polacanthus

Abstract: Two genera of armoured dinosaurs (Ankylosauria) are present in the Lower Cretaceous Wealden Beds of England. Polacanthus Owencan be distinguished from Hylaeosaurus Mantell on the basis of significant differences in the pectoral girdle, hindlimb and dermal armour. A comprehensive review of the dinosaurs from the Wealden Series of England and contemporary basins of western Europe adds further evidence of a biologicalseparation between Lower Wealden (Hastings Beds, containing Hylaeosaurusarmatus) and Upper Wealden faunas (Wealden Group of the Isle of Wight-containing Polacanthus foxii-and nearly equivalent units in Belgium, France, Germany and Spain).

Abstract: A description of the remains of a large Dinosaur, discovered in 1865 by the Rev. W. Fox, in a bed of shaly clay between Barnes and Cowleaze Chines, in the Isle of Wight. Head, neck, shoulder-girdle, and foreribs were missing, but the rest of the skeleton was almost entire. Some of the præsacral vertebræ recovered show a double costal articulation.

Abstract: A new dinosaur,Taohelong jinchengensis gen.et sp.nov.,is described based on material(a proximo-middle caudal vertebra,three dorsal ribs,an almost complete left ilium,and several armors including a partial sacral shield) from the Lower Cretaceous Hekou Group in Lanzhou-Minhe Basin,north-central China.Taohelong jinchengensis possesses three autapomorphies:neural canal of proximo-middle caudal inverted trapezium,lateral edge of preacetabular process inverted "S"-shaped in dorsal view,and sacral shield composed of varioussized and irregularly-arranged osteoderms.Cladistic analysis shows that Taohelong is a member of polacanthine nodosaurid ankylosaur,and is the sister taxon of Polacanthus foxii from the Early Cretaceous Barremian of England.Here Polacanthinae is defined as the most inclusive clade containing Polacanthus foxii Owen,1865 but not Ankylosaurus magniventris Brown,1908 or Panoplosaurus mirus Lambe,1919.Taohelong represents the frst occurrence of polacanthine in Asia,and indicates again the existence of a rich and unique dinosaur assemblage in the Lower Cretaceous Hekou Group in the Lanzhou-Minhe Basin.