Chialingosaurus | Facts & Information

About 160 million years ago, in the Upper Jurassic, in the Mesozoic era lived a herbivorous dinosaur called Chialingosaurus 4 m long, which mainly fed on primitive ferns and other plants that grew at ground level.

Its fossil remains were unearthed in 1957 in China in Shangshaximiao, Sichuan province, and based on them two years later, in 1959, Chinese paleontologist Young Zhongjian described this species and named it Chialingosaurus kuani-after the name of the Chialing river that crossed the southern part of the region.

Since 1978 an incomplete skeleton of this dinosaur has been on display at the Municipal Museum in Chongqing – a city in southern China.

The head of a Chialingosaurus was very small compared to the size of the body – whose weight was estimated at about 1.4 tons. His brain size was relatively small, about the size of a golf ball, which shows that his intelligence was quite low.

From the nape to the middle of the back the dinosaur had a row of large bony plates, very thick and triangular in shape, covered with a stratum corneum, arranged on either side of the spine, grouped in an orderly manner in pairs along the anterior part of the back, in the area of the shoulders and neck.

From the middle of the back to the tip of the tail appeared pairs of sharp spikes, some having very large dimensions even half a meter, and others were smaller and thinner.

The forelimbs were smaller than the hind limbs but long enough for this dinosaur's gait to be quadrupedal. The hind limbs were more robust, the thighs were very broad and muscular, and the paws had thick fingers and large claws covered by sturdy and heavy hooves.

Chialingosaurus Food

The chialingosaurus dinosaur was a peaceful herbivore, its food was made up of plants at ground level, these were broken with its horn-like beak with the help of its sharp edges like scissor blades and then shredded into the powerful masses of the two jaws.

When in danger this animal used as a means of Defense the spines in the tail area like modern bull horns, taking care to keep away from the predator's fangs the side of the body, more vulnerable.

It was often enough for a Chialingosaurus to move its tail strongly towards the attackers to deter them and some even to put them on the run, because the sharp spines could each time cause extremely serious wounds on their body.