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Shenzhousaurus (meaning "lizard from the Divine Land", after an ancient name for China) is an extinct genus of ornithomimosaurian theropod dinosaur that was discovered in the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of Liaoning, China. The genus contains a single species, the type species S. orientalis, named after the Latin word for "eastern". There is only one specimen of the genus, which preserves most of the body, the head, the tail, one hand, and parts of the legs.

Discovery
Shenzhousaurus was discovered by Chinese farmers at a locality called Sihetun, which is near Beipiao in western Liaoning Province in China. It was the first ornithomimosaur to be recovered from the Yixian Formation. When the specimen was excavated, it was accidentally broken, and the block containing the skeleton was split in half. This destroyed several of the bones, including those of the head, which are crushed.

During preparation, the two blocks were rejoined and then the matrix surrounding the specimen was removed. The skeleton is relatively complete, however most of the forelimbs are missing along with the pectoral girdle and the very end of the tail. The parts of the specimen which are preserved are fully articulated, and the skeleton is positioned in the normal theropod death pose.

Shenzhousaurus was formally described in 2003 in the American Museum Novitates (the in-house publication for the American Museum of Natural History) by Qiang Ji, Mark Norell, Peter Makovicky, Ke-Qin Gao, Shu'An Ji, Chongxi Yuan. It was notable among ornithomimosaurs at the time because of the presence of teeth in the jaws, when most ornithomimosaurs known from the time were edentulous.

The holotype, and only specimen, of Shenzhousaurus was given the designation NGMC 97-4-002 and is on display in the Geological Museum of China in Beijing.

Description
Shenzhousaurus was a relatively small ornithomimosaur comparable in size to other small coelurosaurs like Caudipteryx, Sinornithosaurus, and Huaxiagnathus. Gregory S. Paul estimated that the adult size of Shenzhousaurus was around 1.6 m long and 10 kg. Rubén Molina-Pérez and Asier Larramendi gave a roughly similar estimate of 1.7 m long and 12 kg
 * Size of holotype elements in description:
 * Apomorphies:

Classification

 * Analyses: Deinocheirus, Cau 2024,

Similar or identical results to Lee and colleagues were found in a prior analysis of ornithomimosuar phylogeny by Xu and colleagues in 2011, although this analysis did not include data on Deinocheirus. Subsequent analyses have also recovered this result including those of Brusatte and colleagues in 2014, Hattori and colleagues in 2023, and Samathi in 2024.

Integument

 * Ornithomimus feathers

Pneumaticity

 * Pneumaticity

Locomotion

 * Footprints

Diet

 * Gastroliths
 * Feeding ecology of herbivorous theropods

Paleoenvironment

 * Age
 * Locality

Contemporary fauna

 * Predation
 * Jehol biota ecology
 * Lujiutan diversity

Source gathering

 * Hexing