Asia's earliest known armored dinosaur from the Lower Jurassic found in SW China

(ECNS) -- A new taxon of armored dinosaur has been found by a vertebrate research team in southwestern China, according to an article released on eLife on Tuesday.

Based on an associated partial skeleton that includes skull, axial, limb and armor elements, the dinosaur can be classified into Yuxisaurus kopchicki, said the team.

Fossils of armored dinosaurs are common in late Jurassic rocks from 150 million years ago, but rarely found in early Jurassic strata.  

Discovered in the Early Jurassic stratum at a village in Yuxi, a city in China's Yunnan Zhuang Autonomous Region, Yuxisaurus kopchicki is Asia's earliest known armored dinosaur.

Unlike the fossils of the dinosaur previously found in the area, the new discovery includes a relatively complete skeleton, providing enough fossil materials to identify it as Asia's earliest known armored dinosaur that lived during the Early Jurassic (200 million years ago).