Ratchasimasaurus suranareae Basal neornithischian indet. ('Phu Noi neornithischian' )

Manitkoon, Sita, Deesri, Uthumporn, Warapeang, Prapasiri, Nonsrirach, Thanit & Chanthasit, Phornphen, 2023, Ornithischian dinosaurs in Southeast Asia: a review with palaeobiogeographic implications, Fossil Record 26 (1), pp. 1-25 : 1

publication ID

https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/fr.26.e93456

publication LSID

lsid:zoobank.org:pub:F8C273F5-D7C5-4A5C-BF0A-56C7C3085D55

persistent identifier

https://treatment.plazi.org/id/D9E9B138-B0E5-5E4F-B572-0E4B7D4BCC16

treatment provided by

by Pensoft

scientific name

Ratchasimasaurus suranareae Basal neornithischian indet. ('Phu Noi neornithischian' )
status

 

Ratchasimasaurus suranareae Basal neornithischian indet. ('Phu Noi neornithischian')

References.

Buffetaut et al. 2014; Manitkoon et al. 2019.

Material.

PRC 149 (renumbered from PN 13-09 in Buffetaut et al. (2014)), a lower jaw (Figs 3B View Figure 3 , 4A, B View Figure 4 ); PRC 150, an articulated postcranial skeleton ( Manitkoon et al. 2019) (Fig. 3C View Figure 3 ).

Locality and age.

Phu Noi locality, Kham Muang District, Kalasin Province; the lower Phu Kradung Formation, Late Jurassic.

Previous study.

Buffetaut and his team reported a lower jaw (PRC 149) from the Phu Noi locality. The fan-shaped teeth with a strongly ridged crown and an asymmetric enamel distribution suggests that the specimen belongs to a small ornithopod dinosaur ( Buffetaut et al. 2014). A well-preserved articulated small ornithischian skeleton without skull (PRC 150) was reported from the same locality ( Manitkoon et al. 2019). The pre-acetabular process of the ilium is narrow, long with a perfectly rounded termination and slightly ventrally curved. The post-acetabular process is short and high. A combination of characters resembles those Jurassic basal neornithischians from China, such as Agilisaurus louderbacki and Hexinlusaurus multidens ( Manitkoon et al. 2019).

Comments.

Many taxa of basal neornithischians, once considered as early members of ornithopods, have been reclassified as the basal neornithischians ( Boyd 2015; Madzia et al. 2018, 2021; Dieudonné et al. 2020). The similarities to the Chinese taxa, for example, the axial skeleton, is composed of 15 dorsal and five sacrals; the Brevis shelf of the ilium is visible in lateral view along the entire length; a distinct supra-acetabular flange on the pubic peduncle of the ilium; prepubis tip extends beyond the distal end of the pre-acetabular process of ilium, suggesting PRC 149 is a basal neornithischian outside the clade Ornithopoda . Numerous limb bones of various sizes from basal neornithischians were also found at the Phu Noi site, indicating that these dinosaurs were abundant in this area. It is the oldest neornithischian known, so far, from southeast Asia. Agilisaurus louderbacki and Hexinlusaurus multidens exhibit symmetrically distributed enamel ( Peng 1992; Barrett et al. 2005), but the dentary teeth of PRC 149 and other isolated teeth from Phu Noi are different in having asymmetrically distributed enamel on the teeth as in Yandusaurus hongheensis from the upper Shaximiao Formation, Nanosaurus agilis (= Drinker , Othnielia , Othnielosaurus ) from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation, and a variety of more derived neornithischians ( Barrett et al. 2005; Butler et al. 2008; Galton 2009; Carpenter and Galton 2018). Preliminary comparisons seem to indicate that it is a new taxon ( Buffetaut et al. 2014; Manitkoon et al. 2019).