Open Paleo

Zhejiangosaurus

Lü et al., 2007 juh-JAHNG-oh-SAWR-us Nomen dubium

Named after Zhejiang Province, eastern China where it was found, combined with Greek sauros meaning 'lizard'; translates as 'Zhejiang lizard'

100.5–93.9 million years ago Cenomanian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Zhejiangosaurus is an extinct genus of ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian stage) of Zhejiang, eastern China. It was named by Lü Junchang and colleagues in 2007, and the type species is Zhejiangosaurus lishuiensis ("from Lishui", where the fossil was found). It has no diagnostic features, and thus is a nomen dubium.

Under dispute

Lü and colleagues (2007) described Zhejiangosaurus as a nodosaurid. Arbour and Currie (2015) recovered it as a derived ankylosaurid in a polytomy with ankylosaurines, and treated it as a nomen dubium because the holotype has no autapomorphy or unique combination of characters. Oyabu and colleagues (2026) place it outside Nodosauridae. It is placed at Ankylosauria incertae sedis.

Species

Zhejiangosaurus lishuiensis Lü et al., 2007 Nomen dubium

Type species

Named for Lishui, the Chinese administrative unit in Zhejiang Province where the fossil remains were collected.

Holotype
ZMNH M8718 , Zhejiang Museum of Natural History
Material
Incomplete skeleton: sacrum with 8 vertebrae, complete right ilium, proximal ischium, complete pubis, partial left ilium, 2 complete hindlimbs, 14 caudal vertebrae
Horizon
Chaochuan Formation, Cenomanian, Late Cretaceous , 100.5–93.9 million years ago
Locality
Liancheng, Zhejiang, China Lü and colleagues (2007, p. 345) give the horizon as "Chaochuan Formation (Cenomanian)". The 118 ± 1 Ma tuff that Ma and colleagues (2016) date in the Chaochuan comes from the Laozhu graben of the Lishui Basin; they do not tie it to Liancheng.

References

  1. Lü, J.; Jin, X.; Sheng, Y.; Li, Y.; Wang, G.; Azuma, Y. (2007). New nodosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Lishui, Zhejiang Province, China. Acta Geologica Sinica (English Edition) 81(3): 344-350. doi:10.1111/j.1755-6724.2007.tb00958.x lü2007a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Ornithischians. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the appearance features; the dorsal spines are from its reconstruction.

    jones2026a
  3. Arbour, V. M.; Currie, P. J. (2015). Systematics, phylogeny and palaeobiogeography of the ankylosaurid dinosaurs. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 14(5): 385-444. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/14772019.2015.1059985

    Found Zhejiangosaurus too poorly diagnosable to uphold, a nomen dubium.

    arbour2015a
  4. Oyabu, S.; Kobayashi, Y.; Zelenitsky, D. K.; Fiorillo, A. R.; Kano, M. (2026). A new nodosaurid ankylosaur (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) from the Upper Cretaceous Hikagenosawa Formation in Japan reveals dispersal pattern of Asian nodosaurid ankylosaurs. Cretaceous Research 106477. Elsevier BV. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2026.106477

    Places it outside Nodosauridae under its definition of that clade, and prunes it a posteriori as unstable.

    oyabu2026a
  5. Ma, Z.; Li, J.; Zhang, Y.; Dong, S.; Song, C.; Li, Y. (2016). 浙江南部丽水盆地地层时代及构造演化 [Geochronological and structural constraints on the lithostratigraphic units of the Lishui Basin, southeastern China]. Geology in China 43(1): 56-71. doi:10.12029/gc20160103

    Dates a Chaochuan Formation tuff in the Laozhu graben of the Lishui Basin at 118 ± 1 Ma; the paper does not tie it to the type locality.

    ma2016a