ZHONGYUANSAURUS
an armoured ankylosaurid dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of China.
Pronunciation:
Meaning: Zhongyuan lizard
Author/s: Xu
et al. (
2007)
Synonyms: See
below
First Discovery: Henan, China
Discovery Chart Position: #629
Zhongyuansaurus luoyangensis
(Zhongyuan Lizard from Luoyang)Etymology
Zhongyuansaurus is derived from "Zhongyuan" (literally "central land", an area north of the Yellow River, perceived as the birthplace of the Chinese civilization) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard).
The
species epithet,
luoyangensis, means "from Luoyang" in Latin.
Zhongyuangosaurus (Xu
et al. 2007),
Zhongyuanosaurus (Xu
et al. 2007).
Confusingly, the English translation of the Xu
et al. 2007 paper includes the names
Zhongyuangosaurus and
Zhongyuanosaurus, but the original Chinese manuscript uses
Zhongyuansaurus exclusively throughout.
According to Arbour and Currie,
Zhongyuansaurus itself might be a synonym of
Gobisaurus domoculus.
Discovery
The remains of
Zhongyuansaurus were discovered in the Haoling Formation at Luoyang City, Henan Province, Ruyang County, China.
The
holotype (HGM 41HIII-0002, housed at Henan Province Geological Museum) is a nearly complete skull, fragments of the lower jaw, the arch of a neck vertebra, one almost complete and three partial back vertebrae, ten partial and a series of seven complete tail vertebrae, an upper arm, a partial pelvis, and several armour scutes, ribs, and other fragments.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Early Cretaceous
Stage: Aptian-Albian
Age range: 125-100 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: ?
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: ?
Diet: Herbivore
Zhongyuansaurus
luoyangensis
Other Species
Zhongyuansaurus junchangi (Zhang
et al., 2025)
References
• Xu L, Lu J, Zhang X, Jia S, Hu W, Zhang J, Wu Y and Ji Q (2007) "A new nodosaurid dinosaur fossil from the cretaceous period of Ruyang, Henan".
Acta Geologica Sinica, 81(4): 433-438.
• Carpenter K, Bartlett J, Bird J and Barrick R (2008) "Ankylosaurs from the Price River Quarries, Cedar Mountain Formation (Lower Cretaceous), east-central Utah".
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 28(4): 1089–1101. DOI: 10.1671/0272-4634-28.4.1089.
• Arbour VM and Currie PJ (2015) "Systematics, phylogeny and palaeobiogeography of the ankylosaurid dinosaurs".
Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 14(5): 385-444. DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2015.1059985.
• Zhang J-M, Jia L, Xu L, You H-L, Gao D-S, Liu D, Li Y and Wang Y-C (2024)
"New ankylosaurid material from the Lower Cretaceous of the Ruyang Basin, Henan Province".
Acta Palaeontologia Sinica, 64(1): 60-73 (in Chinese).
DOI: 10.19800/j.cnki.aps.2024037.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
ZHONGYUANSAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/ZHONGYUANSAURUS›. Web access: 06th Mar 2026.
