Open Paleo

Chialingosaurus

Young, 1959 JYAH-LING-o-SAWR-us Nomen dubium

Named after the Chialing River (now Jialing River) in Sichuan Province, China, where fossils were discovered, + Greek sauros ('lizard'), meaning 'Chialing lizard'.

170.9–154.8 million years ago Bajocian–Oxfordian, Middle Jurassic–Late Jurassic
Middle Jurassic and Late Jurassic stages

Chialingosaurus is a genus of herbivorous stegosaurian dinosaur similar to Kentrosaurus from the Upper Shaximiao Formation, Late Jurassic beds in Sichuan Province in China. Its age makes it one of the oldest species of stegosaurs, living about 160 million years ago. Since it was an herbivore, scientists think that Chialingosaurus probably ate ferns and cycads, which were plentiful during the period when Chialingosaurus was alive.

Species

Chialingosaurus kuani Young, 1959 Nomen dubium

Type species

Named for geologist Kuan Yaowu (also spelled Guan Yao-Wu), who collected the fossils in 1957 while surveying the Chialing River.

Holotype
IVPP V2300 , Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology
Material
Six vertebrae, a typical spine and probably two more spines, middle part of left scapula, both humeri, right radius, distal part of right ischium, left femur and metatarsal III, and a few limb bone fragments.
Horizon
upper Shaximiao Formation, Bajocian–Oxfordian, Middle Jurassic–Late Jurassic , 170.9–154.8 million years ago
Locality
Taipingtsai, Sichuan, China

Notable specimens

  • CV 202

    Chongqing Museum of Natural History complementary

    Referred skeleton preserving a partial skull and lower jaws, anatomy absent in the skull-less holotype, along with vertebrae, limb elements and four plates. The material does not overlap the holotype, and Zhou considered the two possibly the same individual.

    Dong et al. (1983)

References

  1. Young, C. C. (1959). On a new Stegosauria from Szechuan, China. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 3(1): 1-8. young1959a
  2. Dong, Z.; Zhou, S.; Zhang, H. (1983). [Dinosaurs from the Jurassic of Sichuan]. Palaeontologica Sinica, New Series C, Whole Number 162(23): 1-136. dong1983a
  3. Maidment, S. C. R.; Wei, G. (2006). A review of the Late Jurassic stegosaurs (Dinosauria, Stegosauria) from the People's Republic of China. Geological Magazine 143(5): 621-634. Cambridge University Press (CUP). doi:10.1017/s0016756806002500

    Found no autapomorphies for Chialingosaurus, treating it as a nomen dubium.

    maidment2006a
  4. Maidment, S. C. R.; Norman, D. B.; Barrett, P. M.; Upchurch, P. (2008). Systematics and phylogeny of Stegosauria (Dinosauria: Ornithischia). Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 6(4): 367-407. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1017/S1477201908002459

    Maintains Maidment and Wei's (2006) verdict that Chialingosaurus is a nomen dubium.

    maidment2008a