New armored dinosaur discovered in China

Scientists have published the results of their research on this dinosaur that lived since the beginning of the Jurassic period in the journal eLife on March 15.

CNN channel (USA) reported that scientists found fossils of this new armored dinosaur in 2017 in the Yuxi region, Yunnan province (China). They named this dinosaur Yuxisaurus kopchicki. Professor Shundong Bi at Indiana University (USA) confirmed that the study of Yuxisaurus kopchicki started in 2019.

According to the research results, it is likely that Yuxisaurus kopchicki lived in the period from 192 million to 174 million years ago. Yuxisaurus kopchicki is also the first armored dinosaur of this period recorded in Asia.

This shows that the group of armored dinosaurs lived scattered around the world after appearing a few million years earlier, said Paul Barrett at the Natural History Museum in London (UK).

Yuxisaurus kopchicki was about 2-3 meters in length and mainly ate low-growing plants. Mr. Barrett also added that on the body of Yuxisaurus kopchicki, there are many sharp spines that help them avoid the attack of predators and also have the purpose of showing off with other species of the same group when they have territorial disputes. Several modern animals behave similarly to Yuxisaurus kopchicki, including porcupines.

Armored dinosaurs’ closest “relatives” are the herbivores Scelidosaurus and Emausaurus – both of which originated in Europe during the Jurassic period.