Sinankylosaurus
Sinankylosaurus was an armoured dinosaur that lived in China during the Late Cretaceous. It is known from a single hip bone, so scientists are still figuring out exactly what it looked like. Some scientists think it might not even be an ankylosaur!1
When did it live?
How fast was it?
Fun facts
Sinankylosaurus is known from just one bone, a right ilium, which is part of the hip.1
The bone was found near Zangjiazhuang Village in Zhucheng, China.1
It lived about 77 to 73 million years ago, during the Campanian age.1
The name combines 'Sinae' for China and 'Ankylosaurus', a famous armoured dinosaur.1
Some scientists later said the hip bone does not have features that clearly belong to ankylosaurs, so they think it might be a different kind of dinosaur.1
Other dinosaurs found in the same area include the giant duck-billed Shantungosaurus and the tyrannosaur Zhuchengtyrannus.1
Most asked questions about Sinankylosaurus
?Is Sinankylosaurus a real dinosaur?
Yes, Sinankylosaurus is a real dinosaur, but scientists are not sure exactly what kind. It was named in 2020 from a single hip bone, and some later scientists think it might not be an ankylosaur.1
?How big was Sinankylosaurus?
Nobody knows for sure, because only one hip bone has been found. Without more fossils, scientists cannot estimate its size.1
?What did Sinankylosaurus eat?
If it was an ankylosaur, it would have been a plant-eater. The Paleobiology Database lists it as a ground-dwelling herbivore.2
?When did Sinankylosaurus live?
Sinankylosaurus lived during the Late Cretaceous Period, about 77 to 73 million years ago.1
Ask Rex about Sinankylosaurus
Rex only answers questions about this page. 10 questions a month.
Rex is an AI and can make mistakes. He runs on servers in the EU and questions are never saved. Never type your name or other personal things.
Myth buster
Myth: Sinankylosaurus was definitely an armoured dinosaur like Ankylosaurus.
Truth: Scientists are not sure. Some later studies found no clear ankylosaur features in its hip bone, so they think it might not be an ankylosaur at all.1
For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Sinankylosaurus
- Named by
- Wang et al. 20202
- Group
- Armoured dinos
- Family / clade
- Ankylosauria2
- Classification
- Ornithischia > Ankylosauria > Thyreophora2
- Age of the rocks
- 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)2
- Rock formations
- Hongtuya2
- Countries
- China2
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
- Discovery
- The bone was collected during large excavations in Shandong Province, China, starting in the 1960s. In 2020, Kebai Wang and colleagues named it Sinankylosaurus zhuchengensis.1
- Still debated
- Scientists still debate whether Sinankylosaurus was really an ankylosaur, because the only known bone does not show clear features of that group.1
Where the facts come from
- Sinankylosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
- Sinankylosaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
Rex is hungry! Dino Wiki is a dad's project for his dino-loving son, free with no ads. Grown-ups can feed Rex a snack to help keep it online.Feed Rex
Ankylosaurus
Sauropelta
Pinacosaurus
Scutellosaurus
Struthiosaurus
Euoplocephalus
Tyrannosaurus
Triceratops
Velociraptor
Spinosaurus
Parasaurolophus
Pteranodon