Tuojiangosaurus
Tuojiangosaurus | |
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Mounted skeleton at the Natural History Museum, London | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | †Ornithischia |
Clade: | †Thyreophora |
Clade: | †Stegosauria |
Genus: | †Tuojiangosaurus Dong et al., 1977 |
Species: | †T. multispinus
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Binomial name | |
†Tuojiangosaurus multispinus Dong et al., 1977
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Tuojiangosaurus (meaning "Tuo River lizard") is a
.Description
Tuojiangosaurus was a large stegosaur, reaching 6.5 metres (21 ft) in length and 2.8 metric tons (3.1 short tons) in body mass.[1] Physically similar to the North American Stegosaurus, Tuojiangosaurus is the best understood of the Chinese stegosaurs.[2]
In 1977, Dong provided a diagnosis but this largely consisted of traits shared with other stegosaurus. In 1990,
Tuojiangosaurus has the typical narrow and low head, bulky body, and low teeth of other stegosaurids. The limbs, especially the arms, are rather short.
Like Kentrosaurus, Tuojiangosaurus had two rows of plates along the spine, which became taller over the hip region. Those at the neck and front trunk were rounded or pear-shaped; the plates at the rear back became more triangular and pointed. All plates have a thickened central section, as if they were modified spikes.[5] Dong estimated there were about seventeen pairs of plates and spikes. Tuojiangosaurus had at least two outward-pointing, rather robust, spikes on each side of the end of the tail, angled at approximately 45 degrees to the vertical. In stegosauridae, this spike arrangement has become affectionately known as the "thagomizer".[2] Dong thought it were possible that there were four pairs of spikes. Paul, based on "Chungkingosaurus sp. 3" specimen CV 00208, interpreted the thagomizer as a "pin-cushion array", with two vertical pairs of thick spikes and a third pair of narrow spikes pointing to behind.[4]
Discovery
In 1974, during construction of the Wujiaba dam in Zigong, Sichuan, the remains of a stegosaurian were found.
The type and only species of Tuojiangosaurus, Tuojiangosaurus multispinus, was named and described in 1977 (exactly a hundred years after the naming of Stegosaurus by Othniel Charles Marsh) by Dong Zhiming, Zhou Shiwu, Li Xuanmin and Chang Yijong. The generic name is derived from the River (jiāng) Tuo. The specific name is derived from Latin multus, "many", and spina, "spine".[6]
The holotype, CV 209, was found in a layer of the Upper Shaximiao Formation, dating from the Oxfordian-Kimmeridgian. It consists of a rather complete skeleton that however lacks parts of the skull, lower jaws, tail and limbs. In 1977, it represented the most complete stegosaurian skeleton found in Asia. The paratype was specimen CV 210, a sacrum.[6] Subsequently, more material has been referred, including juveniles. This complemented the holotype with elements of the skull, especially the braincase, and the lower jaws.
A mounted skeleton of Tuojiangosaurus multispinus is on display at the Municipal Museum of
Classification
Tuojiangosaurus was by Dong placed in
Paleobiology
Tuojiangosaurus ate low-lying, ground vegetation.[9] Paul suggested that Chialingosaurus and Chungkingosaurus were in fact the juveniles of Tuojiangosaurus.[4]
See also
Notes
- ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-7566-9910-9.
- ^ Galton, P.M., 1990, "Stegosauria", in: D.B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, & H. Osmólska (eds.), The Dinosauria. University of California Press, pp. 435-455
- ^ a b c Paul, G.S., 2010, The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs, Princeton University Press p. 221
- ^ a b c Galton, P.M., and P. Upchurch, 2004, "Stegosauria", pp. 343-362 in: D.B. Weishampel, P. Dodson, and H. Osmolska (eds.), The Dinosauria, 2nd Edition. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA
- ^ a b c Z. Dong, X. Li, S. Zhou and Y. Zhang, 1977, "On the stegosaurian remains from Zigong (Tzekung), Szechuan province", Vertebrata PalAsiatica 15(4): 307-312
- ^ Mateus, Maidment and Christiansen (2009). "A new long-necked ‘sauropod-mimic’ stegosaur and the evolution of the plated dinosaurs", Proc Biol Sci. 2009 May 22; 276(1663): 1815–1821.
- hdl:10044/1/45349.
- ISBN 1-84028-152-9.
References
- ISBN 0-565-01073-5.
- ISBN 3-540-52084-8.