娇小长春龙（Changchunsaurus parvus）是吉林大学地质博物馆专家于2005年自行研究命名的新属、新种恐龙。近年来，随着对该化石研究的不断深入，取得了一系列的重要成果。
最近以吉林大学地质博物馆馆长金利勇研究员为首的课题组（第一作者单位）与英国大不列颠自然历史博物馆、德国洪堡基金会、比利时皇家科学院的专家合作在古脊椎动物学领域国际权威刊物《古脊椎动物学报》（Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology）（美国古脊椎动物学会主办，SCI收录）上发表文章，刊登了关于“长春龙”的最新研究成果。
研究认为，长春龙是鸟臀类恐龙中角足龙亚目（Cerapoda）的基础类型代表，它的发现为解决鸟臀类恐龙系统发育研究中最有争议的问题之一——角足龙类的起源提供了重要材料。通过对长春龙头部特征的详细研究，对比目前所发现的其他基础角足龙类材料，重新分析了角足龙类的三个演化分支（鸟脚下目、肿头龙下目与角龙下目）之间的关系，为今后基础角足龙类的系统关系研究奠定了基础。通过研究还发现，长春龙与中国早白垩世的另一类角足龙类“热河龙”有许多相似之处，它们很可能是姐妹类群，代表了东亚地区早期角足龙类的发展方向。(生物谷Bioon.com)
生物谷推荐原文出处：
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology DOI: 10.1080/02724630903412372
Cranial anatomy of the small ornithischian dinosaur Changchunsaurus parvus from the Quantou Formation (Cretaceous: Aptian-Cenomanian) of Jilin Province, northeastern China
Jin Liyong a; Chen Jun ab; Zan Shuqin c; Richard J. Butler de;Pascal Godefroit f
a Jilin University Geological Museum, Changchun, Jilin Province, People's Republic of China
b Key Laboratory of Evolution of Past Life and Environment, Northeast Asia under Ministry of Education, People's Republic of China
c The Geological Museum of China, Xisi, Beijing, People's Republic of China
d Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom
e Bayerische Staatssammlung fr Palontologie und Geologie, Munich, Germany
f Department of Palaeontology, Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique, Belgium, Pascal
The Quantou Formation of Jilin Province, People's Republic of China, has recently yielded an important new fauna of 'middle' Cretaceous vertebrates. This fauna includes the small-bodied cerapodan ornithischian dinosaur Changchunsaurus parvus, represented by excellent cranial and postcranial material. When initially described, Changchunsaurus was hypothesed to represent one of the most basal known ornithopods; however, similarities to ceratopsians were also noted, suggesting that Changchunsaurus may be crucial to elucidating the interrelationships of basal cerapodans, one of most problematic areas of ornithischian phylogeny. Here we present a detailed description of the craniodental anatomy of Changchunsaurus, rediagnose the taxon based upon three autapomorphies, and provide comparisons to other basal cerapodans, as a foundation for future studies of basal cerapodan relationships. Changchunsaurus shows strong similarities to the Chinese Early Cretaceous cerapodan Jeholosaurus, and it is likely that they are sister taxa.
