Pulaosaurus qinglong

"Pulao lizard"

You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Pulaosaurus 5 m (16.4 ft) long
as long as 3 people standing fingertip to fingertip
Length
5 m (16.4 ft)
Period
Middle Jurassic (174–163 Mya)
Place
China
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Dinosauria The clade containing all dinosaurs, terrestrial archosaurs with upright limbs.
Pulaosaurus reconstruction by Connor Ashbridge
Reconstruction · Connor Ashbridge (CC-BY)

Pulaosaurus (meaning “Pulao lizard”) is an extinct genus of neornithischian dinosaur from the mid-Jurassic (Callovian–Oxfordian ages) Tiaojishan Formation of Hebei, China. The genus contains a single species, Pulaosaurus qinglong, known from a nearly complete articulated skeleton including the skull and soft tissue impressions. It is one of the only non-avian dinosaurs known to preserve a larynx (voicebox), suggesting it may have made bird-like vocalizations. Pulaosaurus is the first neornithischian named from the Yanliao Biota, though members of this clade have been known from other fossil beds of the same age for much longer.

What we know

  • Named by Yang, Kang, & Xu, 2025.
  • Fossils found in China.

What we guess

The reconstruction notes for Pulaosaurus — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.