In Depth
Not a lot has been recovered for this dinosaur, but what we do have for Chaoyangsaurus allows us to identify this as a small ceratopsian dinosaur, What is really significant about this is that Chaoyangsaurus lived during the late Jurassic, which indicates to us that the ceratopsian dinosaurs that would be among the dominant dinosaur forms during the late Cretaceous have there evolutionary origins going back at least as far as the late Jurassic.
Further Reading
- The earliest ceratopsian from the Tuchengzi Formation of Liaoning, China. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 19(4):681-697. - X. Zhao, Z. Cheng & X. Xu - 1999.
