Chaoyoungosaurus

Chaoyang lizard

• Chaoyang · Chinese (place name) · Chaoyang (a city in Liaoning Province, China)
• -o- · Greek · connecting vowel
• sauros · Greek · lizard

The name honours Chaoyang, a city in Liaoning Province, northeastern China, near where the fossil material was discovered. The suffix "-saurus" (from Greek "sauros," meaning lizard) is the standard ending used for dinosaur genera. The name therefore means "Chaoyang lizard," reflecting both the geographic origin of the specimen and the long-standing convention of naming dinosaurs after their discovery locality.

Named by

Dong

Year named

1983

Period

Late Jurassic

Stage

Oxfordian

Found in

Liaoning Province, China

Chaoyoungosaurus is a stegosaurid (plated dinosaur) described by Dong Zhiming in 1983 from fragmentary material found in Liaoning, China. It is generally considered a nomen dubium because the fossil material is too incomplete to confidently diagnose or distinguish the genus from other stegosaurids. Some sources treat it as a possible synonym of other Chinese stegosaurids, but it has not been formally synonymised. Note that "Chaoyang" is sometimes romanised as "Zhaoyang," which can cause confusion in the literature.