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Zhongyuansaurus junchangi is a newly described ankylosaurid dinosaur based on partial fossils from the Lower Cretaceous Haoling Formation in the Ruyang Basin of Henan Province, China. The 2025 description reports a right jaw, tail bones, ribs, limb bones and armor—not a complete skeleton.
What fossils were found?
The holotype—the specimen on which the species description is based—is catalogued as 41HIII0708. The 2025 paper describes it as including a right mandible, 14 free caudal vertebrae, seven fused caudal vertebrae forming a tail-club handle, ten haemal arches, four ribs, a left humerus, one metatarsal and 41 osteoderms, or bony plates.
That collection preserves parts of the jaw, tail, limbs and armor, but it is not a complete skeleton. The published description is Zhang Ji-ming, Jia Lei, Xu Li, You Hai-lu, Gao Dian-song, Liu Di, Li Yu and Wang Yan-chao, “New ankylosaurid material from the Lower Cretaceous of the Ruyang Basin, Henan Province,” Acta Palaeontologica Sinica 64(1): 60–73 (2025). Journal record.
Where and when did it live?
The fossils were discovered in the Haoling Formation of the Ruyang Basin, Henan Province, China. The formation is identified as Lower Cretaceous, but the available description summary does not establish a more precise numerical age for this specimen.
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What does its name mean?
The species name junchangi honors Chinese paleontologist Lü Junchang and his work in Henan. The genus name Zhongyuansaurus was established in 2007 for a different species, Z. luoyangensis.
How certain is its place in the dinosaur family tree?
The 2025 authors classify Z. junchangi as an ankylosaurid and report features they use to distinguish it from other Asian ankylosaurids. The wider history of Zhongyuansaurus is less settled: its classification has shifted among ankylosaur groups, and a 2015 proposal suggested that the older species Z. luoyangensis might be a junior synonym of Gobisaurus. That is a historical taxonomic proposal, not a consensus established by the information available here. The 2025 authors recognize the new species in Zhongyuansaurus. The genus summary and cited references outline that taxonomic history.
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What can the fossils tell us—and what remains unknown?
The described bones and osteoderms support identifying a new species and documenting parts of its anatomy. They do not, on their own, establish a precise body size, diet or behavior. Nor do the available sources provide an attributable quotation from a researcher. Those details should not be inferred from the label “armored dinosaur” or from the fact that the specimen includes tail-club handle bones.
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