Dianchungosaurus

Dianchung lizard

• Dianchung · Chinese · Dian (Yunnan) + chung (central / middle)
• saurus · Greek · lizard

The name combines "Dian," an abbreviation for Yunnan Province in southwestern China, with "chung," meaning "central" or "middle," referring to the central part of Yunnan where the fossils were discovered. The suffix "-saurus" is the standard Latinised Greek word for "lizard," universally used in dinosaur genus names. Together the name means roughly "central Yunnan lizard," honouring the geographic origin of the specimen.

Named by

Young

Year named

1982

Period

Early Jurassic

Stages

Hettangian – Sinemurian

Found in

Yunnan Province, China

Dianchungosaurus is generally regarded as a nomen dubium. It was originally described by Young (1982) from fragmentary material from the Lower Jurassic of Yunnan, China, and was tentatively referred to the ornithischian dinosaurs, possibly as a heterodontosaurid. The material is too incomplete to support a firm diagnosis, and the genus has not been widely accepted as valid in subsequent literature.