Chialingosaurus

Type Species: Chialingosaurus kuani

Classification: Dinosauria – Ornithischia – Thyreophora – Stegosauria – Stegosauridae 

Time Period: Late Jurassic

Location: China

Diet: Herbivore 

The stegosaur Chialingosaurus is known from a single specimen that includes a partial skeleton (but no skull); the fossilized remnants include six vertebrae, the coracoids, the humeri, a right radius, and three spines. It was found in the Shaximiao Formation in China, and is one of three stegosaurs known from the environment. The other stegosaurs are Chungkingosaurus and Tuojiangosaurus. Some scientists believe Chialingosaurus and Chungkingosaurus are actually the same genera, rendering the stegosaur count of Shaximiao to two. Contemporaries of Chialingosaurus included sauropods such as Mamenchisaurus and Shunosaurus, theropods such as Yangchuanosaurus and Gasosaurus, and ornithischians such as the early ornithopod Agilisaurus and a heterodontosaur holdout from the earlier Jurassic known as Tianyulong. Chialingosaurus was a small and slender stegosaur that reached only about thirteen feet in length. Like all stegosaurs it was a low browser, likely munching on ferns and cycads. Reconstructions of Chialangosaurus’ armor is guesswork, but it have generally been modeled after Kentrosaurus. Some paleontologists believe that the arrangement of the spines on the hip and tail – and possibly the shoulders – would’ve been used both for defense against predators and as a means of display, differentiating this genera from the similarly-sized Chungkingosaurus.