Dino card No. 1960 of 2,027

Yanbeilong

Say it: yan-BAY-long

Name means: “dragon north of Yanmen Pass”1

Ate: PlantsPlated dinosEarly Cretaceous

Yanbeilong was a plated dinosaur, a stegosaur, that lived in what is now China. It was one of the last stegosaurs to walk the Earth, living near the end of the Early Cretaceous period.1 2

Lived

113 to 100 million years ago2

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Zuoyun County, Shanxi Province, China1 2

Food

Plants2

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Yanbeilong is known from a single partial skeleton that includes vertebrae and hip bones.1

It lived about 113 to 100 million years ago, during the Albian age of the Early Cretaceous.2

The name 'ultimus' means 'last' in Latin, because it was one of the last stegosaurs.1

Yanbeilong was a close relative of Stegosaurus and Wuerhosaurus.1

Its fossils were discovered in 2011 in the Zuoyun Formation of China.1

Scientists think Yanbeilong was a ground-dwelling herbivore that walked on all four legs.2

AI-made picture of Yanbeilong — An AI-made picture of how Yanbeilong might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Yanbeilong

?How big was Yanbeilong?

Scientists do not know Yanbeilong's exact size because only a partial skeleton has been found. Estimates suggest it was a medium sized dinosaur, but a specific length is not currently known.2

?What did Yanbeilong eat?

Yanbeilong was a herbivore, meaning it ate plants. It was a ground-dwelling dinosaur that walked on all four legs.2

?When did Yanbeilong live?

Yanbeilong lived during the Albian age of the Early Cretaceous period, about 113 to 100 million years ago.1 2

?Where was Yanbeilong found?

Yanbeilong's fossils were discovered in 2011 in the Zuoyun Formation near Madaotou Township in Shanxi, China.1

?Is Yanbeilong a dinosaur?

Yes, Yanbeilong is a dinosaur. It is a type of ornithischian, though its classification as a stegosaur is currently debated by paleontologists.1

?Why is it called Yanbeilong ultimus?

Yanbeilong means 'north of Yanmen Pass dragon' in Chinese, and 'ultimus' means 'last' in Latin, because it was one of the last stegosaurs to exist.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Yanbeilong
Named by: Jia et al. 20242
Group: Plated dinos
Family / clade: Stegosauridae2
Classification: Ornithischia > Stegosauria > Thyreophora2
Age of the rocks: 113 to 100 million years (Albian)2
Rock formations: Zuoyun2
Countries: China2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Yanbeilong was named in 2024 by Lei Jia and colleagues based on a partial skeleton found in 2011 in Shanxi, China.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how many plates or spikes Yanbeilong had on its back, because only a partial skeleton has been found.1

Where the facts come from

Yanbeilong (en.wikipedia.org)
Yanbeilong 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.

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