Bienosaurus

Bien's lizard

• Bien · Proper noun (personal name) · honouring Chinese geologist and palaeontologist Meng-Nien Bien
• -o- · Latin/Greek · connective vowel
• sauros · Greek · lizard

Bienosaurus is named in honour of Meng-Nien Bien (卞美年), a prominent Chinese geologist and palaeontologist who worked extensively on Mesozoic vertebrates in China. The suffix "-saurus" comes from the Greek word "sauros," meaning "lizard," and is the standard suffix used in dinosaur genus names. The name therefore translates literally as "Bien's lizard." It was named to recognise Bien's significant contributions to early vertebrate palaeontology in China.

Named by

Dong

Year named

2001

Period

Early Jurassic

Stages

Hettangian – Sinemurian

Found in

Lower Lufeng Formation, Yunnan Province, China

Bienosaurus lufengensis was named by Dong Zhiming in 2001. It is a small thyreophoran (armoured) dinosaur known only from fragmentary jaw material from the Lower Lufeng Formation of Yunnan, China. Due to the fragmentary and limited nature of the holotype material, many researchers consider it a nomen dubium — the material is insufficient to confidently distinguish it from other thyreophorans of the period.