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This is a new reptile was found in the Yixian Formation in Lingyuan, Liaoning Province, in northeast China. This 125 million year old reptile is a new discovery having been formally described and named in 1999 by Li Jianjun and colleagues of the Beijing Natural History Museum as Sinohydrosaurus Lingyuanensis. The name translates into China (sino) Water (hydro) Lizard (saurus), with the suffix Lingyuanensis added to honor the place of its discovery. At the same time when Beijing Natural History Museum was working on their specimen, Gao Keqin and others at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing was completely unaware that they were working with the counter-slab of the same specimen. They named the same species Hyphalosaurus Lingyuanensis which is now the official name of this reptile. Sinohydrosaurus is easier to remember and the two names are used interchangeably today. Sinohydrosaurus or Hyphalosaurus was neither a fish nor an amphibian. Rather, it was a reptile that phylogenetically descended from a land-dwelling ancestor to become a fresh-water dweller (similar to how the ancestors of whales were once land dwellers). It looks very similar to the Keichousaurus, but is smaller, differed in structure and lived in the Cretaceous Period 125 million years ago, about 100 million years later than the Keichousaurus. To view Sinohydrosaurus fossils for sale CLICK HERE To view all fossils for sale CHICK HERE
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