Huayangosaurus

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Huayangosaurus

Conservation status

Extinct (fossil)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Ornithischia
Suborder:	Thyreophora
Infraorder:	Stegosauria
Family:	Huayangosauridae

Binomial name

Huayangosaurus taibaii
Dong, Tang, and Zhou, 1982

Huayangosaurus was a stegosaurian from Middle Jurassic in China. It derives its name from "Huayang" an alternate name for Sichuan, the province where it was discovered. It lived ~165 million years ago, some 20 million years before its famous relative, Stegosaurus appeared in North America. At only 4.5 metres long, it was also much smaller than its famous cousin. Found in the Lower Shaximiao Formation, Huayangosaurus shared the local Middle Jurassic landscape with the sauropods Shunosaurus, Datousaurus, Omeisaurus and Protognathosaurus, the ornithopod Xiaosaurus and the carnivorous Gasosaurus.

1 Discovery and species
2 Classification
3 Palaeobiology
4 Popular Culture
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Discovery and species

Huayangosaurus remains from twelve inidvidual animals were recovered from the Dashanpu Quarry near Zigong in Sichuan, and named by Dong Zhiming.

Huayangosaurus species

H. taibaii (type)

[edit] Classification

As it is the most basal stegosaurian, it is placed in within its own family Huayangosauridae. It is also morphologically distinct from later (stegosaurid) forms. Its skull was broader and had premaxillary teeth in the front of its mouth. All later stegosaurians lost these teeth.^[1]

[edit] Palaeobiology

Like many other stegosaurians it had plates all down its back, and spikes on its tail. Two large spikes were above its hips, and may have been used for deterring an attack from above (considering as it was a fairly short in height compared to later stegosaurians). Its plates were smaller than those of Stegosaurus, with much less surface area. Thus they would have been much less effective heat regulators, one of the postulated functions of plates.

[edit] Popular Culture

Mounted skeletons of Huayangosaurus are on display at the Zigong Dinosaur Museum in Zigong and the Municipal Museum of Chongqing in Sichuan Province in China.

[edit] References

^ Sereno, P & Z-M Dong (1992). The skull of the basal stegosaur Huayangosaurus taibaii and a cladistic diagnosis of Stegosauria. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 51: 318-343

Fastovsky DE, Weishampel DB (2005). "Stegosauria:Hot Plates", in Fastovsky DE, Weishampel DB: The Evolution and Extinction of the Dinosaurs (2nd Edition). Cambridge University Press, 107–130. ISBN 0-521-81172-4.