page_title: Huayangosaurus
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Huayangosaurus / Description
caption_attribution_description: Huayangosaurus taibaii, a stegosaur from the Middle Jurassic of China, pencil drawing
context_page_description: Huayangosaurus is a genus of stegosaurian dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of China. The name derives from "Huayang", an alternate name for Sichuan, and "saurus", meaning "lizard". It lived during the Bathonian to Callovian stages, around 165 million years ago, some 20 million years before its famous relative, Stegosaurus appeared in North America. At only 4.5 metres long, it was also much smaller than its famous cousin. Found in the Lower Shaximiao Formation, Huayangosaurus shared the local Middle Jurassic landscape with the sauropods Shunosaurus, Datousaurus, Omeisaurus and Protognathosaurus, the ornithopod Xiaosaurus and the carnivorous Gasosaurus. It was found in Huayang in China.
context_section_description: Like other stegosaurians, Huayangosaurus was a quadrupedal herbivore with a small skull and a spiked tail. Like its more famous relative, Stegosaurus, Huayangosaurus bore the distinctive double row of plates that characterize all the stegosaurians. These plates rose vertically along its arched back. In Huayangosaurus, the plates were more spike-like than in Stegosaurus. Like Stegosaurus, however, it bore two pairs of long spikes extending horizontally near the end of its tail.
  Huayangosaurus had several types of osteoderms. On its neck, back, and tail were two rows of paired small vertical plates and spikes. On the rear of the tail, pairs of spikes were present forming the so-called "thagomizer", a defensive weapon. Each flank had a row of smaller osteoderms, culminating in a long shoulder spine in front, curving to the rear. 
  Huayangosaurus was one of the smallest known stegosaurians, at just 4.5 meters (15 feet)  in length.
caption: Restoration
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