page_title: Jinyunpelta
section_title: Discovery and naming
hierarchical_section_title: Jinyunpelta / Discovery and naming
caption_attribution_description: The skull and mandible of Jinyunpelta sinensis holotype ZMNH M8960. Photograph and line drawing of the skull and mandible in dorsal (a), ventral (b), and anterior (c) views. Abbreviations: an, angular; ar, articular; b, paranasal aperture B; bo, basioccipital; c1, paranasal aperture C1; c2, paranasal aperture C2; d, dentary; en, external naris; exo, exoccipital; f, frontal; fen, fenestra; l, lacrimal; mso, middle supraorbital; mx, maxilla; mf, maxillary fossa; na, nasal; o, orbit; oss, ossicle; pd, predentary; pmx, premaxilla; po, postorbital; pra, prearticular; prf, prefrontal; q, quadrate; qj, quadratojugal; qjh, quadratojugal horn; sa, surangular; sno, supranarial ornamentation; spl, splenial; sq, squamosal.
context_page_description: Jinyunpelta is a genus of herbivorous ankylosaurine thyreophoran dinosaur from the Cretaceous Liangtoutang Formation of Jinyun County, Zhejiang, China; it has one species, the type species J. sinensis. This species is the basalmost ankylosaur known to have had a proper tail club.
context_section_description: In June 2008, farmer Li Meiyun on a construction site at Huzhen in Jinyun County discovered the remains of an ankylosaur. Between 2008 and 2014 excavations took place by a joint team of the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History, the Jinyun Museum and the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum. In 2013, five ankylosaurian skeletons were uncovered. A new species was to be based on two of these, while preparation of the other finds continued.
  In 2018, the type species Jinyunpelta sinensis was named and described by Zheng Wenjie, Jin Xingsheng, Yoichi Azuma, Wang Qiongying, Kazunori Miyata and Xu Xing. The generic name combines Jinyun with a Greek peltè, "small shield", a usual suffix in the names of ankylosaurians. The specific name refers to the provenance from China.
  The holotype, ZMNH M8960, was found in a layer of the Liangtoutang Formation dating from the Albian-Cenomanian, about one hundred million years old. It consists of a partial skeleton, with a complete skull, but lacking most of the hindlimbs, apart from the right humerus and the left thighbone. The paratype is ZMNH M8963, a skeleton lacking the skull but including the left lower leg and a complete tail club. It was found at two to three metres distance from the holotype.
caption: Holotype skull shown from above and below
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