Name: Tuojiang Dragon ( ruyangosauRus)
Age: Jurassic Twilight
Location: Asia (China)
Size: Length 7 meters
Diet: Plants
Tuojiang dragon living in China is extremely closely related to the stegosaurus that lived in North America at the same time. From the neck, back ridge to tail, Tuojiang Dragon grows 15 pairs of triangular back plates, which are sharper than the back plates of Stegosaurus, and their function is to defend against incoming enemies. At the end of its short, robust tail, there are two pairs of sharp spines that rise upwards, and the Tuojiang Dragon can use its tail to slam all carnivorous enemies who dare to approach.
In 1974, Zhou Shiwu, a museum worker in Chongqing, carried out systematic excavations at Wujiaba near Zigong City, Sichuan Province, and after three months of excavation, cleared out 10 tons of fossil bones. These specimens were studied by Chinese paleontologist Professor Dong Zhiming, and some of the fossils were restored to four dinosaur skeletons, one of which is the skeleton of Tuojiang dragon. This skeleton is the first complete stegosaurus dinosaur skeleton ever excavated in Asia, and has important research value.
Tuojiang dragon is one of many shield-covered ankylosaurs found in China and the first stegosaurus dinosaur found in Asia, with nearly complete specimens. Its structure is similar to that of Stegosaurus, with a narrow head, short teeth, and a large physique.
It has fifteen pairs of bone plates on its back, which become more towering and spiny on the buttocks and tail. Like the narrow-faced stegosaurus, the Tuojiang dragon had two pairs of long spines on its tail.
The inference that the protruding nerve spines (muscle attachment points) on stegosaurus vertebrae did not appear on Tuojianglong and Dracaena, suggesting that the latter two were ground-based foragers.
Fossils of Tuojiang dragons