Named By: | Young in 1940 |
Time Period: | Early Jurassic 196.5 - 189.5 Ma |
Location: | China, Yunnan Province - Lower Kufeng Formation |
Size: | Unknown |
Diet: | Carnivore |
Fossil(s): | Partial cranial remains of the snout |
Classification: | | Chordata | Reptilia | Dinosauria | Saurischia | Theropoda | |
Lukousaurus is a taxon based on most of a small skull's snout, displaying distinctive lachrymal horns, found in the Early Jurassic-age Lower Lufeng Formation, Yunnan, China and was described by Chung Chien Young in 1940. The generic name refers to the Lugou Bridge, lit. "crossroads", near Beijing, where the Sino-Japanese War started. L. yini is tentatively classified as a theropod dinosaur by some allied to ceratosaurs, by others a coelurosaur. Its skull is rather robust for its size though the teeth were described by the author as typically theropodan. It may, however, be a crurotarsan or a primitive crocodilian.