Huayangosaurus

dinosaur · Jurassic · China · spikes

Ancient Chinese lizard. Huayangosaurus gets its name from Huayang, an old name for the Chinese region of Sichuan, combined with the word saurus meaning lizard.

Surprisingly small. At only about 4 meters (13 feet) long, Huayangosaurus was much smaller than its famous relative Stegosaurus, which lived about 20 million years later.

Super early stegosaur. Huayangosaurus lived during the Middle Jurassic period, around 165 million years ago, making it one of the earliest known members of the stegosaur family.

Shared landscape. This dinosaur roamed an ancient Chinese forest alongside giant sauropods like Shunosaurus and Datousaurus, along with smaller plant-eaters and meat-eating hunters like Gasosaurus.

Fossil discovery. Huayangosaurus was found in the Lower Shaximiao Formation in China, a rock layer that preserves many amazing Middle Jurassic dinosaurs.