Chungkingosaurus
Chungkingosaurus, meaning "Chongqing Lizard", is a herbivorous dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic Shaximiao Formation in what is now China. It is a member of the Stegosauria.
| Chungkingosaurus Temporal range: Late Jurassic, | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Mounted skeleton | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | †Ornithischia |
| Clade: | †Thyreophora |
| Suborder: | †Stegosauria |
| Family: | †Huayangosauridae |
| Genus: | †Chungkingosaurus Dong et al., 1983 |
| Species: | †C. jiangbeiensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Chungkingosaurus jiangbeiensis Dong et al., 1983 | |
It was one of the smallest stegosaurs with a length of less than four metres, but it was apparently an adult, judging by the ossification of the sacrum.
At first, all of the stegosaurs came from the Lower Cretaceous, but this one is earlier. It seems obvious that the plates were used as defence, but temperature regulation and mate attraction have been proposed.[1]
References
- Dong Zhiming 1992. Dinosaurian faunas of China. China Ocean Press, Beijing. ISBN 3-540-52084-8
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