A new ornithomimid dinosaur with North American affinities from the Late Cretaceous Qiupa Formation in Henan Province of China Li Xu a , Yoshitsugu Kobayashi b, * , Junchang Lü c , Yuong-Nam Lee d , Yongqing Liu c , Kohei Tanaka b, e , Xingliao Zhang a , Songhai Jia a , Jiming Zhang a a Henan Geological Museum, Zhengzhou, Henan 450016, China b Hokkaido University Museum, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810, Japan c Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing 10037, China d Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, Daejeon 305-350, South Korea e Department of Geoscience, University of Calgary, Calgary T2N 1N4, Canada article info Article history: Received 12 November 2009 Received in revised form 23 October 2010 Accepted in revised form 1 December 2010 Available online 14 December 2010 Keywords: Dinosauria Ornithomimosauria Ornithomimidae Qiupalong henanensis Qiupa Formation Late Cretaceous Henan Province China abstract A partial skeleton of the ornithomimid dinosaur, discovered from the Late Cretaceous Qiupa Formation of Luanchuan County, Tantou Basin, Henan Province, China, is described here and assigned to a new genus and species, Qiupalong henanensis, with unique features (a notch on the lateral surface of the lateral posterior process of the proximal end of tibia and a small pit at the contact between astragalus and calcaneum). A phylogenetic analysis in this study suggests that it is a derived ornithomimid and form a monophyly with North American ornithomimids (Struthiomimus altus and Ornithomimus edmontonicus), sharing two characters (straight pubic shaft and large acute angle between pubic shaft and boot). Some characters (small anterior process of the pubic boot and curved pedal unguals) are seen in basal ornithomimosaurs as well, but these features in Q. henanensis are reversal. Qiupalong is the first definitive ornithomimid from outside of the Gobi Desert and is the southern-most occurrence of Late Cretaceous ornithomimid from eastern Asia, demonstrating southern extension of ornithomimid distribution in Asia. Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Ornithomimids, derived ornithomimosaurs, are common in the Upper Cretaceous sediments of the Gobi Desert in Asia, and four ornithomimid taxa are known so far (Sinornithomimus dongi and Archaeornithomimus asiaticus from China and Gallimimus bullatus and Anserimimus planinychus from Mongolia) (Gilmore 1933; Osmólska et al. 1972; Russell 1972; Barsbold 1988; Kobayashi and Lü 2003; Weishampel et al. 2004; Kobayashi and Barsbold 2006). Some Asian ornithomimid specimens have been reported from outside of the Gobi Desert in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan, Heilongjian Province of China, and Tibet Autonomous Region of China (Averianov 2006; Alifanov and Averianov 2006; Kordikova et al. 1996; Kurzanov 1976; Nessov 1995; Rozhdestvensky 1977; Yang et al. 1986, pp. 1e 10), but these materials are not well described systematically and/or very fragmentary. Kobayashi and Lü (2003) proposed that Mongolian ornithomimids (Gallimimus and Anserimimus) are monophyletic, and placed high in a phylogenetic tree as a sister group to North American clade (Ornithomimus and Struthiomimus). While these Mongolian ornithomimids are known from Maastrichtian deposits (Weishampel et al. 2004), Chinese ornithomimids (Sinornithomimus and Archaeornithomimus) are basal ornithomimids and are known from older age (Campanian for Archaeornithomimus and early Late Cretaceous for Sinornithomimus) than Mongolian ones (Kobayashi and Lü 2003). Henan Province is located at the central China, well outside of the Gobi Desert, and has been known as one of the richest places for dinosaur eggs (Fig. 1). Dinosaur eggs have been found from twelve basins in the province, and the Xixia Basin is the most abundant and has yielded twenty ootaxa (Zhou et al. 2005, pp:1e27). The first record of dinosaur bones from the province was an isolated tyrannosaur tooth, named as Tyrannosaurus luanchuensis (Dong 1979). Recent excavations by the Henan Geological Museum produced some dinosaur groups from this province: an iguano- dontian (Nanyangosaurus zhugeii), a nodosaurid (Zhongyuansaurus luoyangensis), sauropods (Huanghetitan ruyangensis, Ruyangosaurus giganteus, and Xianshansaurus shijiagouensis), a dromaeosaurid * Corresponding author. Tel./fax: þ81 11 706 4730. E-mail address: ykobayashi@museum.hokudai.ac.jp (Y. Kobayashi). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Cretaceous Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/CretRes 0195-6671/$ e see front matter Ó 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2010.12.004 Cretaceous Research 32 (2011) 213e222