Sanxiasaurus Sanxiasaurus

Sanxiasaurus (meaning “Sanxia lizard”, after the Three Gorges, Chinese Sanxia, of the Yangtze River) is a genus of neornithischian dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Xintiangou Formation in the Chongqing Municipality of China. The type and only species is S. modaoxiensis. The holotype is a partial postcranial skeleton consisting of 55 bones including two cervical vertebrae, 11 dorsal vertebrae, 4 sacral vertebrae, 18 caudal vertebrae, both humeri, radii, and ulnas, partial right ilium, partial right ischium, both femora and tibiae, left fibula, 3 metatarsi and 4 phalanges. In a phylogenetic analysis, it was found to be a basal neornithischian, more derived than Lesothosaurus and less derived than Hexinlusaurus.