Pronunciation: SIEN-o-see-LOOR-us
Meaning: Chinese hollow tail
Author/s: Yang (1942)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Sichuan, China
Discovery Chart Position: #182
Sinocoelurus fragilis
We don't know what it is with Yang Zhongjian, who is better known by his "zi" (courtesy name) Chung Chien Young. He had a bad habit of naming new dinosaurs based on a very precise four teeth and he was at it again with Sinocoelurus — "Chinese hollow tail" — which was collected at Guangyuan in China's Sichuan Basin over a three day period in 1942.
This was the third, yes third, four-tooth theropod taxon that he named within the pages of a single paper that year, and this one is just as dubious as the others. He described them thus: "long, slender, moderately curved and compressed; ridged anterior and posterior sides with no trace of serrations; enamel very thin", and assigned them to coelurosauria which was a "waste basket" back then for pretty much any small carnivorous dinosaur.
Though Coelurosauria is something very different these days, Sinocoelurus gets precious little attention, and most palaeontologists think its remains still belong in a waste basket... a real one... along with the teeth of Chienkosaurus and Szechuanosaurus.
This was the third, yes third, four-tooth theropod taxon that he named within the pages of a single paper that year, and this one is just as dubious as the others. He described them thus: "long, slender, moderately curved and compressed; ridged anterior and posterior sides with no trace of serrations; enamel very thin", and assigned them to coelurosauria which was a "waste basket" back then for pretty much any small carnivorous dinosaur.
Though Coelurosauria is something very different these days, Sinocoelurus gets precious little attention, and most palaeontologists think its remains still belong in a waste basket... a real one... along with the teeth of Chienkosaurus and Szechuanosaurus.
(Fragile Chinese hollow tail)Etymology
Sinocoelurus is derived from the Latin "sinae" (Chinese) and Coelurus (from the Greek koilos "hollow" and oura "tail") named for its place of discovery and supposed similarity to the North American Coelurus.
The species epithet, fragilis, means "fragile" in Latin.
Discovery
The remains of Sinocoelurus were discovered in the Guangyuan (aka Kuangyuan or Kyangyan) Group, near Weiyuan, Guangyuan County, Sichuan Province, China, by Yang Zhongjian, aka C.C. (Chung Chien) Young, in 1942. The holotype (IVP AS V232-234) consists of four teeth.
