Chaoyangsaurus
Name:
Chaoyangsaurus
(Chaoyang lizard).
Phonetic: Chow-yang-sor-us.
Named By: X. Zhao, Z. Cheng & X.
Xu - 1999.
Synonyms: Chaoyangosaurus,
Chaoyoungosaurus (replaced names).
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Ornithischia, Marginocephalia, Ceratopsia, Chaoyangsauridae.
Species: C. youngi (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Uncertain due to lack of fossils, but
roughly estimated to be about 1 meter long.
Known locations: China, Liaoning - Tuchengzi
Formation.
Time period: Tithonian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Partial skull, jaw,
cervical (neck) vertebrae, partial scapula (shoulder
blade), and partial humerus (upper arm bone).
Not a lot has been recovered for this dinosaur, but what we do have for Chaoyangsaurus allows us to identify this as a small ceratopsian dinosaur, What is really significant about this is that Chaoyangsaurus lived during the late Jurassic, which indicates to us that the ceratopsian dinosaurs that would be among the dominant dinosaur forms during the late Cretaceous have there evolutionary origins going back at least as far as the late Jurassic.
Further reading
- The earliest ceratopsian from the Tuchengzi Formation of Liaoning,
China. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 19(4):681-697.
- X. Zhao, Z. Cheng & X. Xu - 1999.
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