NAME

Meaning - Wuerhosaurus means “lizard from Wuerho, China”
Pronounced woo-EHR-ho-SAWR-us
Named By - Dong Zhiming
When Named - 1973
DIET

Herbivore (plant-eater)
SIZE

Length - 27 ft (8.1 m) long
Height - 6 ft (1.8 m) tall at the hips
Weight - about 4 tons
WHEN IT LIVED

Early Cretaceous period, about 135-120 million years ago
WHERE IT LIVED

Fossils have been found in Xinjiang, China, Asia.
FOSSILS

A partial fossil (without a complete skull) has been found.
CLASSIFICATION
  • Kingdom Animalia (animals)
  • Phylum Chordata (having a hollow nerve chord ending in a brain)
  • Class Archosauria (diapsids with socket-set teeth, etc.)
  • Order Ornithischia - bird-hipped dinosaurs
  • Suborder Thyreophora - armored dinosaurs
  • Family Stegosauria - plated dinosaurs
  • Genus Wuerhosaurus
  • Species W. homheni (type species named by Dong, 1973)
INTERESTING FACTS

Wuerhosaurus was a stegosaurid (related to Stegosaurus) that had bony, rounded plates along its back and 4 bony spikes at the tip of its tail (thagomizers). It had a shorter body and wider hip bones than other stegosaurids.