Sinocoelurus

Chinese hollow tail

• Sino- · Latin/Greek · Chinese
• koilos · Greek · hollow
• oura · Greek · tail

The name combines the Latin/Greek prefix 'Sino-' (meaning 'Chinese') with the genus name Coelurus, a small theropod dinosaur whose name means 'hollow tail' (from Greek 'koilos', hollow, and 'oura', tail). It was so named because the fragmentary teeth and bones from China were thought to resemble those of the North American genus Coelurus. The 'Sino-' prefix is commonly used in paleontology to indicate a Chinese origin for the specimen.

Named by

Young

Year named

1942

Period

Late Jurassic

Stages

Oxfordian – Tithonian

Found in

Sichuan Province, China

Sinocoelurus is generally considered a nomen dubium. It was described by C. C. Young in 1942 from very fragmentary material — isolated teeth — from the Upper Shaximiao Formation of Sichuan, China. Because the material is so incomplete, it cannot be reliably diagnosed or confidently assigned to any theropod clade, and it is not considered a valid genus by most modern authorities.