Jingshanosaurus (meaning "Jingshan lizard") is a genus of prosauropod dinosaurs from the Early Jurassic. Its fossils, a nearly complete skeleton including the skull, were found near the town of Jingshan ("Golden Hill"), Lufeng County, Yunnan Province, China, from which the name derives.[1] First described in 1995, the type species is J. xinwaensis, formalized by Zhang and Yang.[2] Fossil remains of Jingshanosaurus had been exhibited in museums several years prior to the formal naming.
Description[]
Jingshanosaurus was one of the very last of the prosauropods, which slowly died out in favor of their larger cousins, the sauropods. Jingshanosaurus may have been most closely related to Yunnanosaurus, and has, at times, been included in the Yunnanosauridae. In fact, Dong Zhiming considered Jingshanosaurus possibly a large specimen of Yunnanosaurus. If true, this would make Jingshanosaurus a junior synonym of Yunnanosaurus.