Day 96#: Zhongyuansaurus luoyangensis
Today's animal of the day is Zhongyuansaurus luoyangensis!
Image credit: Jack Wood
This species of ankylosaurid dinosaur lived in what is now the Henan Province of China during the Early Cretaceous period. It was first described in 2007, and its genus is named after the Zhongyuan region of the North China Plain. Like other ankylosaurids, Z. luoyangensis was covered in bony osteoderms that were embedded in its skin and helped to protect the animal from predators. There was even a small arrow-shaped osteoderm on its face, which is unique among ankylosaurids and could have been used for intraspecific competitions or to help identify other members of their species.
Image credit: cisiopurple on DeviantArt
It appears that the holotype specimen of Zhongyuansaurus lacked a tail club, which could have been for several possible reasons. The first is that this individual lacked a tail club because it was a juvenile, which we know because of its cranial sutures. Ankylosaurids weren't born with tail clubs and only grew them once they reached sexual maturity. However, this theory isn't considered likely since the juveniles of other ankylosaurids that did possess tail clubs still had bone structures in their tails that would indicate that they were going to grow clubs once they grew up. Another theory is that Zhongyuansaurus did have a tail club, but it might have been fairly small, and the club bone may not have been fully attached to the rest of the tail, so it became detached and lost after the animal died. However, the most likely theory is that this species simply didn't have tail clubs, which was pretty common for ankylosaurids at this time.
Image credit: Gary Todd
Zhongyuansaurus luoyangensis would have lived alongside several other dinosaurs from the Haoling Formation, such as an oviraptorid known as Luoyanggia, several different species of sauropods, as well as a few undetermined species of ornithomimids, iguanodontids, and even a carcharodontosaurid. In addition to Z. luoyangensis, the genus Zhonguyansaurus has a second species known as Z. junchangi, which was just discovered this year! There's also currently some debate whether or not this genus of dinosaur might actually be synonymous with another genus of ankylosaurid known as Gobisaurus. However, at the moment, it seems that there are just enough physical differences to keep Zhonguyansaurus and Gobisaurus as separate genera.
