[D] Tuojiangosaurus multispinus [Su] [sG] [T]
Describer
Dong, Li, Zhou & Zhang, 1977
Time
Jurassic Late Oxfordian Kimmeridgian
Classification
Ornithischia Thyreophora Stegosauria Stegosauridae
Diet
Herbivore
Fossilsite
Shangshaximiao Formation, Sichuan, China
Length
7 meter
Info
Genus - Typespecies - Skull
Known from two large partial skeletons and the best known plated dinosaur from southern China, where Stegosaurus may have involved before spreading to other continents. It was longer but lighter than today\\\\\\\'s heaviest rhinoceros, and stood taller than a human at the hips. It had a typical stegosaurus small, low head with a toothless beak and small cheek teeth, an arched back, bulky body, and pilar-like limbs.
Neck, back and tail supported up to 15 pairs of pointed, vertical plates; rounded plates on te neck gave way to tall ones allong the back. Two pair of spikes stuck out from the tail-tip, and each schoulder may have borne a plate-like spine.
Holotype
CV 209, comprising a skeleton ‘lacking some parts of the skull and lower jaw, cervical and caudal vertebrae, and some limb elements’ (Dong, 1990).
Paratype
CV 210. The elements recovered were not listed by Dong, Li & Zhou (1977) or Dong, Zhou & Zhang (1983), but the latter authors referred to skull material, scapulae, dorsal vertebrae and associated dermal armour belonging to the paratype specimen. Dong (1990), however, only listed a partial ilio-sacral block.
Current location of material
Two adult braincases, one juvenile basioccipital process, a partial dentary, two partial maxillae, a quadratojugal, a possible squamosal, parietals, some fragments of neural arches of cervical vertebrae and an ilio-sacral block are at the Chongqing Museum. All fragments bear both the catalogue numbers CV 209 and CV 210. The whereabouts of the rest of the postcrania of the holotype and paratype is currently unknown.
Revised species diagnosis. Differs from all other stegosaurs in having frontals that are wider than long and an ilium in which there is a prominent angle leading to a clear separation between the supra-acetabular process and the very well-developed posterior process.
Original species diagnosis
Dong, Li & Zhou (1977) diagnosed Tuojiangosaurus multispinus using the following characters:
(1) elongate facial region;
(2) reduced jugal;
(3) two supraorbitals;
(4) teeth spatulate in form, overlapping in a single functional series, about 27 per jaw;
(5) femur to humerus ratio = 1.57;
(6) fourth trochanter reduced and located in the middle of the femur;
(7) seven pairs of bony plates and spines arranged in two rows on the back from neck to tail.
Dong (1990) published a revised diagnosis of the species and added the following characters:
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three supraorbitals;
(9) sacrum consists of five vertebrae, with three small, bean-shaped fenestrae on each side in dorsal view;
(10) bony plates are symmetrical and pear shaped in the neck region;
(11) large, high spines in the lumbar and sacral regions;
(12) two to four pairs of large, massive spikes at the distal extremity of the tail.
Since the known material represents a mixture of at least two individuals, it seems speculative to suggest that there were 17 pairs of plates and spines as Dong, Li & Zhou , (1977) suggest in character 7, unless much material has been lost. (Maiden & Wei, 2006)
Dong, Li, Zhou & Zhang, 1977
Time
Jurassic Late Oxfordian Kimmeridgian
Classification
Ornithischia Thyreophora Stegosauria Stegosauridae
Diet
Herbivore
Fossilsite
Shangshaximiao Formation, Sichuan, China
Length
7 meter
Info
Genus - Typespecies - Skull
Known from two large partial skeletons and the best known plated dinosaur from southern China, where Stegosaurus may have involved before spreading to other continents. It was longer but lighter than today\\\\\\\'s heaviest rhinoceros, and stood taller than a human at the hips. It had a typical stegosaurus small, low head with a toothless beak and small cheek teeth, an arched back, bulky body, and pilar-like limbs.
Neck, back and tail supported up to 15 pairs of pointed, vertical plates; rounded plates on te neck gave way to tall ones allong the back. Two pair of spikes stuck out from the tail-tip, and each schoulder may have borne a plate-like spine.
Holotype
CV 209, comprising a skeleton ‘lacking some parts of the skull and lower jaw, cervical and caudal vertebrae, and some limb elements’ (Dong, 1990).
Paratype
CV 210. The elements recovered were not listed by Dong, Li & Zhou (1977) or Dong, Zhou & Zhang (1983), but the latter authors referred to skull material, scapulae, dorsal vertebrae and associated dermal armour belonging to the paratype specimen. Dong (1990), however, only listed a partial ilio-sacral block.
Current location of material
Two adult braincases, one juvenile basioccipital process, a partial dentary, two partial maxillae, a quadratojugal, a possible squamosal, parietals, some fragments of neural arches of cervical vertebrae and an ilio-sacral block are at the Chongqing Museum. All fragments bear both the catalogue numbers CV 209 and CV 210. The whereabouts of the rest of the postcrania of the holotype and paratype is currently unknown.
Revised species diagnosis. Differs from all other stegosaurs in having frontals that are wider than long and an ilium in which there is a prominent angle leading to a clear separation between the supra-acetabular process and the very well-developed posterior process.
Original species diagnosis
Dong, Li & Zhou (1977) diagnosed Tuojiangosaurus multispinus using the following characters:
(1) elongate facial region;
(2) reduced jugal;
(3) two supraorbitals;
(4) teeth spatulate in form, overlapping in a single functional series, about 27 per jaw;
(5) femur to humerus ratio = 1.57;
(6) fourth trochanter reduced and located in the middle of the femur;
(7) seven pairs of bony plates and spines arranged in two rows on the back from neck to tail.
Dong (1990) published a revised diagnosis of the species and added the following characters:
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three supraorbitals;(9) sacrum consists of five vertebrae, with three small, bean-shaped fenestrae on each side in dorsal view;
(10) bony plates are symmetrical and pear shaped in the neck region;
(11) large, high spines in the lumbar and sacral regions;
(12) two to four pairs of large, massive spikes at the distal extremity of the tail.
Since the known material represents a mixture of at least two individuals, it seems speculative to suggest that there were 17 pairs of plates and spines as Dong, Li & Zhou , (1977) suggest in character 7, unless much material has been lost. (Maiden & Wei, 2006)