Reassessment of coelurosaurian (Dinosauria, Theropoda) remains from the Upper Cretaceous Wangshi Group of Shandong Province, China

• We reassess the first non-avian theropod bones ever reported from China.
• We find that the remains from both sites are evidence of tyrannosauroids and ornithomimosaurs.
• We expand the knowledge of the theropod fauna of the herbivore-dominated Wangshi Series, China.

Non-avian theropods are well represented in the Cretaceous of Asia. However, the first theropod remains ever reported from China, from the Wangshi Group of Shandong Province, have not been reassessed since they were described by Carl Wiman in 1929, despite the great strides that have been made in theropod phylogenetics in the last eight decades. The remains redescribed herein consist of four vertebrae (two cervicals, one dorsal and one caudal) from one site, and a caudal vertebra and ungual phalanx from another. The vertebrae from the first site are assigned to tyrannosauroids and ornithomimosaurs, as is the caudal vertebra from the second site, whereas the manual ungual also bears resemblances to those of non-maniraptoran coelurosaurs (specifically compsognathids and ornithomimosaurs). Theropods remain relatively rare in the Wangshi Group; nevertheless, the remains redescribed herein highlight the potential for the discovery of more theropod remains in future excavations.