Genus
Valid Extinct

Beipiaosaurus

Xu et al. 1999

Beipiaosaurus is a genus of therizinosauroid theropod dinosaurs that lived in China during the Early Cretaceous in the Yixian Formation. The first remains were found in 1996 and formally described in 1999. Before the discovery of Yutyrannus, Beipiaosaurus were among the heaviest dinosaurs known from direct evidence to be feathered. Beipiaosaurus is known from three reported specimens. Numerous impressions of feather structures were preserved that allowed researchers to determine the feathering color which turned out to be brownish.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
2
Group
Dinosaures
Herbivore Ground dwelling Terrestrial
Beipiaosaurus
click to enlarge
Most components of the holotype specimen of Beipiaosaurus inexpectus, IVPP V 11559. Derived from Supplementary Figure 1 in the source. © Maria E. McNamara, Fucheng Zhang, Stuart L. Kearns, Patrick J. Orr, André Toulouse, Tara Foley, David W. E. Hone, Chris S. Rogers, Michael J. Benton, Diane Johnson, Xing Xu & Zhonghe Zhou · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia
Beipiaosaurus
Beipiaosaurus
PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
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Theropoda Unranked clade
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Neotheropoda Unranked clade
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Averostra Unranked clade
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Tetanurae Unranked clade
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Coelurosauria Unranked clade
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Maniraptoriformes Unranked clade
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Therizinosauria Unranked clade
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Therizinosauroidea Superfamily
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Beipiaosaurus Genus
Measurements
Length
1,8 m ⓘ
Beipiaosaurus inexpectus
2 m ⓘ
Mass
43 kg ⓘ
Beipiaosaurus inexpectus
Fossil sites 2 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇨🇳 China
2
Geological formations
Yixian
2
Temporal distribution
Barremian (125.77–121.4 Ma)
2
Species (1)
Beipiaosaurus inexpectus 126 Ma
Images 3
Bibliography
Original description
X. Xu, Z.-L. Tang, and X.-L. Wang. 1999. A therizinosauroid dinosaur with integumentary structures from China. Nature 399:350-354 DOI ↗
Bibliography (2)
X. Xu, X. Zheng, and H. You. 2009. A new feather type in a nonavian theropod and the early evolution of feathers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(3):832-834 DOI ↗
X. Xu, Z.-L. Tang, and X.-L. Wang. 1999. A therizinosauroid dinosaur with integumentary structures from China. Nature 399:350-354 DOI ↗