Yulong (dinosaur)

Yulong is an extinct genus of derived oviraptorid theropod dinosaur known from the Late Cretaceous Qiupa Formation of Henan Province, central China. It contains a single species, Yulong mini. It is known from many juvenile specimens that represent some of the smallest known oviraptorids.

Discovery
Specimens of Yulong were collected near Qiupa Town in Luanchuan County, Henan Province, from the Qiupa Formation. The exact geological age of the Qiupa Formation is unknown, but it probably dates to the Late Cretaceous based on the presence of oviraptorids (Yulong), dromaeosaurids (Luanchuanraptor), ornithomimids (Qiupalong) and other, undescribed, derived dinosaur specimens.

Naming and etymology
Yulong was first described and named by Junchang Lü, Philip J. Currie, Li Xu, Xingliao Zhang, Hanyong Pu and Songhai Jia in 2013 and the type species is Yulong mini. The generic name is derived from Chinese 豫 (Yù), the one-character abbreviation of Henan Province, in reference to the occurrence of the genus, and from 龙/龍 lóng meaning "dragon" - a suffix commonly used to name Chinese dinosaurs like the Greek saurus is in the West. The specific name, mini, refers to the small size of the specimens.[1]

Yulong is based on a syntype series of five specimens: HGM 41HIII-0107: an exceptionally well-preserved skeleton with a skull and lower jaws that is housed in the Henan Geological Museum, only lacking the skull and the neck base; HGM 41HIII-0108: a skull lacking the lower jaws; HGM 41HIII-0109: a partial skeleton with skull and lower jaws; HGM 41HIII-0110: a partial skull with lower jaws and some neck vertebrae; and HGM 41HIII-0111: a left ilium. Additional finds have been mentioned in the describing paper. One exceptionally preserved embryo (within an egg) is HGM 41HIII-0301, which came from a nest of 26 eggs.