This is an armored dinosaur of a new species called Bashanosaurus primitivus which was discovered in China. As one of the oldest stegosaurus ever recorded, this discovery adds even more evidence that plant-eating dinosaurs originated in Asia.
“Bashanosaurus primitivus is one of the earliest records of Stegosauria in the world so far,” lead researcher Ning Li, a scientist at the Chongqing Geoheritage Protection and Research Laboratory in China, told Live Science.
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The discovery of the remains of Bashanosaurus primitivus began in 2015, when a herder named Zheng Zhou discovered a bone-like rock in Chongqing, in southeastern China. He reported the find to Ning Li, who confirmed that the “rock” was actually a dinosaur fossil.
After excavating the site in Laojun Village for two years, Li and his colleagues found an incredible assortment of dinosaur bones. It is estimated that there are about 5,000 in all, including fossils belonging to the newly described stegosaurus.
“It’s like where I work at the Dinosaur National Monument [di Utah]where they get many different types of dinosaurs preserved in one giant bone layer,” ReBecca Hunt-Foster, a paleontologist at Dinosaur National Monument who was not involved in the study.
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The team of scientists named the 168-million-year-old herbivorous beast Bashanosaurus for “Bashan,” the ancient name for Chongqing, and primitivus, which is Latin for “first.” During its lifetime, Bashanosaurus primitivus measured more than 2.8 meters, measured from snout to tail. “It’s a bit smaller than the later stegosaurus,” said Hunt-Foster.
