Middle Jurassic

China

 

The best Middle Jurassic known dinosaurs are mostly known from China.  China has produced two of the most diverse Middle Jurassic faunas in the world.  The Jurassic China seems to have been isolated from the faunas of Africa and North American. The earliest stegosaurs are from Asia they tend to be smaller than the classic American Stegosaurus.  The plates are smaller, shoulder spikes are common like the African stegosaur Kentrosaurus.  The theropods generally resemble Allosaurus or Megalosaurus.  The large sauropods don't seem to be closely related to the sauropods found elsewhere.   

Updated 092714

 

Dashanpu Formation was once a lush forest, supporting many sauropods. Stegosaurs and theropods are also present as are small ornithscians. Shunosaurus was the first sauropod with a tail club to be discovered. The tail club has 2 short spikes. It is an intermediate sized, primitive sauropod. It had spatulate teeth and was probably a ground feeder or low-browser feeding on coarse plant material. Huayangosaurus had plates, spines and front teeth instead of a toothless beak and may have given rise to later stegosaurids. Males may have had a pointed horn near the eye.

CollectA Shunosaurus UHA Huayangosaurus

Monolophosaurus was a medium sized theropod similar in shape to allosaurids and megalosaurids, with a distinctive low crest running from between the eyes to the nostrils. It was related to the group ancestral to meglasaurs and spinoaurs.

DinoWaurs Monolophosaurus digicards Shunosaurus

Monolophosaurus is classified by some as a basal allosaur or tyrannosaur.

Wild Safari Monolophosaurus

The crest is too fragile for head butting. It was likely a display structure.