Koreanosaurus


Koreanosaurus is a genus of ornithopod dinosaur. One species has been described, Koreanosaurus boseongensis.

Discovery

In 2003 three fossils of Koreanosaurus were found in the Late Cretaceous-age Seonso Conglomerate from the southern coast of the Bi-bong Dinosaur Fossil Findspot, Boseong, Korean Peninsula: the holotype KDRC-BB2, a partial skeleton lacking the skull, and the paratypes KDRC-BB1 and KDRC-BB3. The type species is Koreanosaurus boseongensis, after its discovery locality. The type species was initially named and described in a master's thesis by Lee Dae-Gil in 2008, and was officially published by Min Huh, Dae-Gil Lee, Jung-Kyun Kim, Jong-Deock Lim and Pascal Godefroit in 2011.

Classification

Koreanosaurus was considered to be a basal member of the Ornithopoda by the authors, forming a clade with Zephyrosaurus schaffi, Orodromeus makelai and Oryctodromeus cubicularis from which they deduced a burrowing lifestyle. Han et al. found it plausible that Koreanosaurus might be a member of Jeholosauridae or closely related to it.