| Shanxia Temporal range: Late Cretaceous |
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|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | †Ornithischia |
| Family: | †Ankylosauridae |
| Subfamily: | †Ankylosaurinae |
| Genus: | †Shanxia Barrett et al., 1998 |
| Species: | †S. tianzhenensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Shanxia tianzhenensis Barrett et al., 1998 |
|
Shanxia ("West Mountain one") is a genus of ankylosaurid dinosaur that lived during the upper Cretaceous Period. Its fossils were recovered and named after the Shanxi Province of China, and it is known only from scrappy remains found in river deposits. Based on the relative lengths of the femur and other leg bones, it probably reached a length of around 3.6 metres (12 ft).
The most prominent feature of Shanxia, which differentiates it from other ankylosaurs, were the long and flattened triangle-shaped horns that projected backward from the squamosal bones on either side of the rear portion of its skull at an angle of 145 degrees. However, the unique shape of these horns may be due to individual variation, and a few scientists (such as Sullivan, 1999) consider Shanxia a nomen dubium, possibly synonymous with the related ankylosaurid Tianzhenosaurus.