Chialingosaurus

''Chialingosaurus'' (meaning " Chialing Lizard") 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.

Discovery and species

The fossils of ''Chialingosaurus'' were collected by the geologist Kuan Yaowu or Guan Yao-Wu in 1957, at Taipingstai in Quxian County, while surveying the Chialing River in southern China. The type species ''Chialingosaurus kuani'' was named and described by paleontologist Yang Zhongjian, ("C. C. Young") two years later in 1959. The generic name refers to the Chialing. The specific name honours Kuan. ''Chialingosaurus'' was the first stegosaurian described from China.C.-C. Young, 1959, "On a new Stegosauria from Szechuan, China", ''Vertebrata PalAsiatica'' 3(1): 1-8

The holotype, IVPP 2300, was found in a layer of the Upper Shaximiao Formation, dating from the Oxfordian-Kimmeridgian. It consists of a partial skeleton lacking the skull. It contains six vertebrae, the coracoids, the humeri, a right radius and three spines. The original material has been supplemented after November 1978 by Zhou Shiwu of the Municipal Museum of Chongqing. A second specimen, CV 202, was referred. It represents a skeleton with a partial skull and lower jaws, some vertebrae and limb elements, and four plates. Zhou considered it likely that the holotype and CV 202 represented a single individual, as the material was not overlapping. A third specimen, CV 203, a partial skeleton lacking the skull, was made the paratype. All specimens are juvenile or subadult.

In 1999, Li Kui