Yingshanosaurus

Yingshanosaurus (meaning "Yingshan lizard") is an extinct genus of stegosaurian dinosaurs from the Middle Jurassic of what is now Southwestern China. The genus contains a single species, Yingshanosaurus jichuanensis. It is known from one partial skeleton discovered in 1983 including back, sacrum, and tail vertebrae, forelimb and hindlimb bones, shoulder and hip bones, and several osteoderms including plates and a spine. At 4–5 metres (13–16 ft) long, it was a medium-sized stegosaur. After its discovery and scientific description, the validity of Yingshanosaurus was questioned by some paleontologists who were unaware of the research published on the species in China.

Yingshanosaurus is known from the Shaximiao Formation, which dates to the Bathonian age. This formation has also yielded abundant fossils of diverse dinosaurs including many sauropods, theropods, early ornithischians, and stegosaurs, in addition to turtles, crocodyliforms, mammal relatives, and fish. These fossils were deposited in a semi-arid to semi-humid environment with meandering rivers. While all of the stegosaurs contemporary with Yingshanosaurus were among the more "primitive" species in this clade, its anatomy suggests it had derived traits consistent with members of the more exclusive subfamily Stegosaurinae.