#Tianzhenosaurus chengi

[new-dinosaurs]

Tianzhenosaurus chengi Pang et al., 2024 (new species)

(Skeleton of Tianzhenosaurus chengi including the type skull, from Pang et al., 2024)

Meaning of name: chengi = for Cheng Zheng-Wu [Chinese paleontologist]

Age: Late Cretaceous (Campanian)

Where found: Huiquanpu Formation, Shanxi, China

How much is known: A nearly complete skull and a nearly complete rest of the skeleton, presumably from the same individual.

Notes: T. chengi was an ankylosaurine ankylosaur, a group of armored dinosaurs known for their distinctive tail club. It was found at the same locality as the only other named species of Tianzhenosaurus, T. youngi, but differs from it in details of its armor plating, skull, and vertebrae. Some researchers have suggested that Tianzhenosaurus represents the same genus as Saichania, an ankylosaur otherwise known from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia, though the describers of T. chengi maintain that the two are distinct enough to be considered separate.

Reference: Pang, Q., Z. Li, and Z. Guo. 2024. A new species of ankylosaurian dinosaur—Tianzhenosaurus chengi sp. nov., from the Late Cretaceous of Tianzhen County, Shanxi Province, China. Journal of Hebei GEO University 47: 41–73. doi: 10.13937/j.cnki.hbdzdxxb.2024.06.006