Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T16:19:32.535Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A review of the Late Jurassic stegosaurs (Dinosauria, Stegosauria) from the People's Republic of China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2006

SUSANNAH C. R. MAIDMENT
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK
GUANGBIAO WEI
Affiliation:
Chongqing Museum of Natural History, Pipashan Street 74, Chongqing 400013, People's Republic of China

Abstract

Seven genera of stegosaurian dinosaur have been named on the basis of material from the Upper Jurassic of China, and this represents a diversity of stegosaurs unparalleled around the world at this time. However, many of the original specimens used to diagnose and describe these species are currently unavailable, and the original descriptions and figures are often inadequate. The Chinese stegosaurs have proven ‘unstable’ in the few cladistic analyses of Stegosauria that have been carried out, causing a loss of resolution in cladograms. Supplementary data on previously described specimens are presented here along with a taxonomic revision. Only Tuojiangosaurus multispinus, Chungkingosaurus jiangbeiensis and Gigantspinosaurus sichuanensis are considered to be valid taxa, with autapomorphies pertaining to features of the ilio-sacral blocks and dermal armour in all cases. The holotype specimen of ‘Chialingosaurus kuani’ is a juvenile, bearing no diagnostic characters, and ‘Monkonosaurus lawulacus’ is based on fragmentary and undiagnostic material. ‘Changtusaurus’ and ‘Yingshanosaurus’ have never been described or figured and their whereabouts are unknown, so they are regarded as nomina nuda. This taxonomic revision significantly reduces known stegosaurian diversity worldwide, and shows that the Chinese diversity was similar to that of Europe and North America in the Upper Jurassic. Previously, it had been suggested that the diversity of Chinese stegosaurs indicated an Asian origin for the clade, a claim that cannot now be upheld.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
© 2006 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)