Pronunciation: HWAAK-see-uh-SOR-us
Meaning: Huaxia lizard
Author/s: Zhao, Wang and Li (2011)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Shandong, China
Discovery Chart Position: #751
Huaxiaosaurus aigahtens
Almost certainly a synonym of Shantungosaurus.
(Gigantic Huaxia lizard)Etymology
Huaxiaosaurus is derived from "Huaxia" (the ancient word for China) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard).
The species epithet, aigahtens, is unusual in that it isn't a real word. Apparently, it's supposed to mean gigantic or enormous, with the Mandarin Chinese
"jí dà" and the Latin "giganteus" meaning much the same thing. Funnily enough, if you take
aigahtens and replace the first "a" with "g", the "h" with "n" and the last "n" with "u" you get... giganteus, which is the epithet of Shantungosaurus: another critter from the Xingezhuang Formation that was named in 2007 and almost certainly owns all of the gigantic hadrosaurid fossils from that area.
Whether this was due to sloppy typing, a copy-and-paste malfunction, crafty wordplay on the part of its author or a mere coincidence, we'll never know.
Discovery
The remains of Huaxiaosaurus were discovered at Zangjiazhuang Quarry in the Xingezhuang Formation (Wangshi Group), Zangjiazhuang Village,
Lübiao Town, Zhucheng City, Shandong Province, China, in 2008. This quarry is also known as Zhucheng.The holotype (number?) is a partial skeleton.
