Pronunciation: hwah-syah jo-long
Meaning: China's armoured dragon
Author/s: Zhu et al. (2024)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Jiangxi Province, China
Discovery Chart Position: #1149
Huaxiazhoulong shouwen
(China's Armoured Dragon, Painted in the Shape of a Beast)Etymology
Huaxiazhoulong is derived from the Chinese pinyin "Huaxia" (China), "zhou" (armour), and "long" (dragon).
The species epithet, shouwen (show-wuhn), is pinyin for "painted in the shape of a beast", in reference to a bronze helmet adorned with beast patterns, which is a cultural relic housed at the Jiangxi Provincial Museum, where the specimen also resides.
Discovery
The remains of Huaxiazhoulong were discovered in the Tangbian Formation (Guifeng Group) at Longxi village, Ganzhu town, Guangchang County, Fuzhou Municipality, Jiangxi Province, China, by Mr. Sun Jingmin of the Guangchang County Museum, in 1986.The holotype (JPM-N000) includes nine back vertebrae, a hip vertebra, seventeen tail vertebrae, a tail club, twenty-seven ribs, a breast plate, shoulder girdles, most of the pelvic girdle, both forelimbs, three hand ones, both hindlimbs, four foot bones, and three armour plates.
