New Species of Armored Dinosaur Unearthed in China

[Prehistory Resurrection]

Meet Yuxisaurus kopchicki. Credit: ©Yu Chen

-A new species of armored dinosaur (belonging to the group of thyreophorans) (dinosaurs which possessed defensive bony plates, spikes and knobs) has been described from China. It is the earliest fossil remains from this group to be found in Asia, adding to the understanding of how these curious dinosaurs evolved and spread around the world.

- It lived in the Lower Jurassic Period of South Western China, a part of the world rich in dinosaur fossils, some 192-174 million years ago.

- According to Prof. Paul Barrett, dinosaur researcher, and his Chinese colleagues, the fossil find consists of quite a complete skeleton, including bits of the skull, vertebrae, parts of the limbs and lots and lots of armor. It is the best-preserved, earliest example of an armored dinosaur from the whole of Asia.
Credit: Xi Yao

-In the past, thyreophoran dinosaurs have largely been associated with the rocks dating to the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous periods (163-66 million years ago) of North America and Europe. But this fossil has shown that their origins go much further back. All in all, this fossil is an amazing and a record finding.

[Gothmog the Baryonyx]

I've seen that reconstruction of it a lot and it looks a little too Nodosaur-like to me. I prefer the Scelidosaurus looking like depiction by cisiopurple.deviantart.com
It's an interesting discovery though. One of the best of this year's batch so far

[Halichoeres]

This is a really cool find, if only for the demonstration that basal thyreophorans were just all over Laurasia. Still waiting for somebody to make a good Scelidosaurus figure, though--I hope the novelty of Yuxisaurus doesn't preempt it.