Wuerhosaurus

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Wuerhosaurus Fossil range: Early Cretaceous
Conservation status
Extinct (fossil)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Superorder: Dinosauria Order: Ornithischia Suborder: Thyreophora Infraorder: Stegosauria Family: Stegosauridae Genus: Wuerhosaurus Dong, 1973

Wuerhosaurus was a Chinese stegosaur from Early Cretaceous times. It was about 7 metres long.

Contents 1 Discovery and species 2 Paleobiology 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Discovery and species

Wuerhosaurus homheni is the type species, described by Dong Zhiming in 1973 from the Tugulu Group in Xinjiang Province in Western China. A smaller species from the Ejinhoro Formation in the Ordos Basin in Inner Mongolia, W. ordosensis, was formalized by the same researcher in 1993.

Wuerhosaurus species

• W. homheni (type)
• W. ordosensis

[edit] Paleobiology

It was lower to the ground than most other stegosaurs; scientists believe that this was an adaptation to let it feed on low-growing vegetation. Unlike Stegosaurus, Wuerhosaurus had shorter, rounded plates, whose purpose is debated. Wuerhosaurus, like other stegosaurs, had a thagomizer, which featured four bony spikes that would most likely have been used for self-defense.

[edit] References

• Dong Zhiming (1992). Dinosaurian Faunas of China. China Ocean Press, Beijing. ISBN 3-540-52084-8. 

[edit] External links

• http://www.users.qwest.net/~jstweet1/stegosauria.htm