Pronunciation: ee-kwee-joo-bus
Meaning: Horse mane
Author/s: You et al. (2003)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Gansu, China
Discovery Chart Position: #527
Equijubus normani
Upon its discovery in China in 2000, Equijubus was trumpeted as the earliest duck-billed dinosaur known from decent remains and plonked into the basal-most position in the basal-most group of all duck-billed dinosaurs: Hadrosauroidea. In one fell swoop, its author You Hai-lu seemed to have untangled the origin of hadrosauroids, announcing that their roots were planted firmly in Asia during the Early Cretaceous and that they branched out across the Laurasian super-continent (current North America, Europe and Asia) sometime later. Of course, his entire theory hinged on Equijubus actually being a hadrosauroid, and with North America yielding more complete hadrosauroids and hadrosaurids since 2003, and Equijubus seemingly lacking in many of their features, a position as a non-hadrosauroid iguanodont was looking just as likely. But it all worked out for You when Equijubus was
fully described in 2014's hadrosaurian magnum opus, and anatomical information from the elements that didn't feature in the original description allowed its affinities to be tested with more confidence. A hadrosauroid, it is!
[Norman's Horse Mane]Etymology
Equijubus was named after Mazong (Shan or Mountain) which means "horse mane" in Chinese. Not content with giving a Chinese hadrosauroid a Chinese name the authors Latinized it to "Equus" (horse) and "juba" (mane), and honored British palaeontologist David Norman in the species epithet, normani.
You Hialu coined the name in his 2002 dissertation, and it became official when You, Luo, Shubin, Witmer, Tang and Tang described it the following year.
Discovery
The first Equijubus normani remains were discovered at Mazong Shan in the Middle Grey Unit of the Digou Formation (Xinminbao Group), Gonpoquan Basin, Gansu Province, China, by a Chinese-American expedition in the summer of 2000.
The holotype (IVPP V12534) consists of a badly crushed skull (570mm long) with lower jaw, and a fragmentary and poorly preserved skeleton, including 9 cervical (neck), 16 dorsal (back), and 6 sacral (pelvic) vertebrae, two pieces of left scapula (shoulder blade), part of a humerus (upper arm bone), bits of both ilia (hip bones), and fragments of both femora (thighs).
