Chilantaisaurus, Hu, 1964

Holtz, TR jr., 2004, Tyrannosauroidea, The Dinosauria, University of California Press, pp. 111-136 : 3

“ Chilantaisaurus ” maortuensis was originally described by Hu (1964), although no overlap exists between the fossil material of this taxon and the considerably larger basal tetanuran Chilantaisaurus tashuikouensis . “C.” maortuensis is based on a partial skull (including an incomplete snout and braincase), an axis, and six caudal vertebrae recovered from the Dashuigou Formation, at Maortu, north of Lake Chilantai, Inner Mongolia, People’s Republic of China. Chure (1998a, in press) has reexamined the material for this species and indicates that it is characterized by the possession of only 12 maxillary teeth, a large pneumatic chamber in the nasals, small invasion of the frontals by M. pseudotemporalis profundus, a sagittal crest composed of the frontals and parietals, small fused interdental plates, lack of a groove for the interdental artery, and a highly pneumaticized and rostrocaudally shortened basicranium. It may be a coelurosaur, but affinity with any particular group is uncertain at present. The reduced tooth count, the sagittal crest, and the highly pneumatized basicranium are reminiscent of tyrannosauroids.