New stegosaurs from the Middle Jurassic Lower Member of the Shaximiao Formation of Chongqing, China

ABSTRACT

Stegosaurs are a major clade of ornithischian dinosaurs, yet because of their fragmentary fossil record, their interrelationships and early evolution are poorly understood. Here, we describe a new stegosaur, Bashanosaurus primitivus, gen. et sp. nov., and some other indeterminate stegosaur materials. We provide new U-Pb detrital zircon ages for horizons bounding the holotypic quarry in the Lower Member of the Shaximiao Formation, Yunyang, Chongqing Municipality, China, which indicate a Middle Jurassic (Bajocian) age. Bashanosaurus represents the earliest record of stegosaurs in Asia and one of the earliest records of this clade in the world. The dorsal vertebrae, scapula, coracoid, femur, and plates of Bashanosaurus primitivus possess several unique characters among Stegosauria, including the elevation of the parapophyses of dorsal vertebrae on stalks at the base of the transverse processes, a flared distal end of the scapula, and a small acromial process. Among armored dinosaurs (thyreophorans), these features are reminiscent of the basally branching taxon Scelidosaurus, indicating that Bashanosaurus possesses a unique mosaic of plesiomorphic thyreophoran and derived stegosaur features. Phylogenetic analysis shows that Bashanosaurus primitivus is the earliest-diverging stegosaur, along with Chungkingosaurus, from the Upper Member of the Shaximiao Formation, consistent with the early age of the taxon.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We thank H. L. You (Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing) for helpful discussion and offering many valuable suggestions, Y. C. Lu for coordinating the fieldwork in Yunyang, X. S. Han for collecting the specimen, Y. Q. Zhang for preparing the specimen, Q. Li for helping with photography, Y. Ye, S. Jiang for providing information on Huayangosaurus taibaii of Zigong Dinosaur Museum. This work is supported by Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing, China (No. cstc2020jcyj-msxmX0082), Postdoctoral Project of Chongqing, China (No. Xm2017069) and Project of Dinosaur Fossil Protection and Research of Chongqing Planning and Natural Resources Bureau (No. kj-2018035). The corresponding authors contributed equally to this work.