Chinese and British paleontologists have identified a new species of stegosaurus from China, the oldest specimen ever identified in Asia and one of the first found in the world.

The study, published today in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, described the remains of an armored herbivorous dinosaur, including the dorsal vertebrae, shoulder bones, lower limbs, legs, ribs and several bony plates.

Scientists have dated the remains to the Bajocian stage of the Middle Jurassic period, far predating most of the known stegosaurs. This means that the relatively small, but fearsome-looking, four-legged dinosaur about 2.8 meters in size from nose to tail roamed the planet about 168 million years ago. Scientists failed to indicate whether it was an adult or a juvenile specimen.

This particular skeleton found has a smaller and less developed scapula, narrower and thicker armor bases, different from all other Middle Jurassic stegosaurs discovered to date, although, according to the study, it has some similarities with some of the earlier ones. armored dinosaurs, more than 20 million years earlier than the specimen discovered.

"All these characteristics suggest that it occupies the place of the stegosaurus family in the dinosaur family tree," explained Dai Hui, of the Chongqing Bureau of Geological and Mineral Resource Exploration and Development, who led the research.

The researchers named the dinosaur "Bashanosaurus primitivus", with "Bashan" referring to the ancient name of the Chinese area of Chongqing where the specimen was found, while the Latin word "primitivus" stands for "first".

(Unioneonline / vl)