Dinosaurs A to Z
Heterodontosauridae

Tianyulong

Generic small ornithischian body-plan outline
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Tianyulong 5 m (16.4 ft) long
as long as 3 people standing fingertip to fingertip
generic small ornithischian body plan, scaled to length — not a silhouette of Tianyulong
Length
5 m (16.4 ft)
Period
Late Jurassic (158.5 Mya)
Place
China
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Heterodontosauridae
Tianyulong reconstruction by Connor Ashbridge
Reconstruction · Connor Ashbridge (CC-BY)

Tianyulong (Chinese: 天宇龍; Pinyin: tiānyǔlóng; named for the Shandong Tianyu Museum of Nature where the holotype fossil is housed) is an extinct genus of heterodontosaurid ornithischian dinosaur. The only species is T. confuciusi, whose remains were discovered in Jianchang County, Western Liaoning Province, China.

What we know

  • Named by Zheng et al., 2009.
  • Fossils found in China.

What we guess

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