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GENERAL DESCRIPTION: This 125 million year old reptile fossil is a Sinohydrosaurus lingyuanensis and was found in the Yixian Formation in Lingyuan, Liaoning Province in northeast China.

This reptile is a new discovery as well, having been first formally described and named in 1999 by Li Jianjun and colleagues of the Beijing Natural History Museum. The name translates into "China" (sino) "Water" (hydro) "Lizard" (saurus), with the suffix "lingyuanensis" added to honor the place of its discovery. Also in 1999, working independently, Gao Keqin and others at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing named the same species "Hyphalosaurus lingyuanensis" -- being completely unaware that they were working with the counter-slab of the same specimen that the other team was studying! The two names are used interchangeably today, although Sinohydrosaurus is easier to remember while Hyphalosaurus is now the official name. Sinohydrosaurus was neither a fish nor an amphibian. Rather, it was a reptile that phylogenetically descended from a land-dwelling ancestor (similar to how the ancestors of whales were once land dwellers) to become a fresh-water dweller. It looks very similar to the Keichousaurus, but is smaller and differs in the osteological structure by having no clavicles; instead having a T-shaped interclavicle. In addition, it lived in the Cretaceous Period 125 million years ago, about 100 million years later than the Keichousaurus.

Formation: Yixian Formation

From: Lingyan,Liaoning Prov. China

Order# Lia03

Price: £550 $861 US €804