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A new armored dinosaur species from the early Jurassic period was discovered in China
Scientists initially discovered stays of an armored dinosaur, which they named Yuxisaurus kopchicki, in 2017 within the Yuxi area of Yunnan province, an space that has been a hotspot for dinosaur discoveries. Analysis on the specimens started in 2019, based on examine creator Shundong Bi, professor at Indiana College of Pennsylvania.
The traditional creature belongs to the thyreophoran group, the identical as its distant cousin the Stegosaurus, mentioned examine creator Paul Barrett, benefit researcher on the Pure Historical past Museum in London.
It probably lived 192 million to 174 million years in the past and is the primary thyreophoran from that point interval to be acknowledged within the area, based on the examine.
“That is the primary early armoured dinosaur to be named from the complete Asian continent and helps to point out how the group unfold all over the world shortly after its origin only a few million years earlier,” Barrett mentioned by way of e mail.
Yuxisaurus kopchicki probably spanned 6.6 to 9.8 toes (2 to three meters) in size and ate low-growing crops like ferns and cycads, he mentioned.
A set of numerous fossils
A collection of bone plates encased the animal, protecting its neck, again and limbs, with giant spikes scattered on high of the armor, Barrett mentioned.
The spikes served a number of functions: deflecting the jaws and tooth of most predators whereas additionally presumably being a instrument for displaying off to different members of its personal species throughout territorial or mate disputes, he defined.
A pair modern-day animals that behave equally are porcupines and hedgehogs, Bi mentioned.
Greater than 120 bone deposits have been retrieved from the dig website, giving the researchers sufficient materials to substantiate a brand new species, he mentioned.
The stays included a number of fragments of a single skeleton, together with components of the armor plates, limbs, jaws and cranium. The dinosaur’s heavy construct and distinctive armor hinted that the researchers had a brand new species on their palms, Bi mentioned.
Moreover, the findings present how numerous the group of dinosaurs was and the way quickly they unfold throughout the northern hemisphere, he mentioned.
The armored dinosaur’s closest family are the herbivorous Scelidosaurus and the Emausaurus — each of which originated in Europe in the course of the Jurassic interval, Barrett mentioned.