Outline: a typical stegosaur
Tuojiangosaurus
too-YANG-oh-SORE-us
"Tuo River lizard"
Type species Tuojiangosaurus multispinus
- Lived
- 162 to 155 million years ago, Late Jurassic
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Length
- about 7 m (23 ft)
- Group
- Stegosaurs, Stegosauridae
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Dong et al. 1977
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in metersOutline: typical stegosaur shape
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
160 million years ago
Field notes
About Tuojiangosaurus
What it was like
Tuojiangosaurus was a plated plant eater about 7 meters (23 feet) long, a close relative of Stegosaurus. It had two rows of pointed plates running down its neck, back and tail, and spikes at the end of its tail for defense. Its head was small and low, suited to feeding on plants near the ground.
Its world
It lived in the Jurassic in what is now China. Its bones come from the Shaximiao Formation, a land of rivers and forests shared with long-necked Mamenchisaurus and the big predator Yangchuanosaurus.
How it was found
Dong and colleagues named it in 1977. The type species is Tuojiangosaurus multispinus, meaning "many spines". It is known from one good partial skeleton, which made it the first well-known stegosaur from Asia.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Stegosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: Z. Dong, X. Li, and S. Zhou, Y. Zhang. 1977. On the stegosaurian remains from Zigong (Tzekung), Szechuan province. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 15(4):307-312