A Late Cretaceous dinosaur specimen unearthed from Jiangxi Province, China has been identified as a new species, the "Beast patterned Huaxia Armored Dragon". This achievement was recently published in the international journal Historical Biology. This study was conducted in collaboration between Yunnan University and Jiangxi Provincial Museum. The research team introduced that in 1986, villagers from Longxi Village, Ganzhu Town, Guangchang County, Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province, discovered a dinosaur fossil while doing farm work. The local government immediately carried out salvage excavation. Afterwards, the specimens were sent to Shanghai for restoration and later transferred to the Jiangxi Provincial Museum for preservation. In 2023, the Jiangxi Provincial Museum collaborated with the Vertebrate Evolution Research Center of the School of Life Sciences at Yunnan University to uncover the mystery of the origin of this fossil. Restoration shows that the "Beast patterned Huaxia Armored Dragon" has a body length of over 6 meters and is a relatively large armored dinosaur fossil discovered in China. They lived in the Late Cretaceous period, from 84 million to 72 million years ago, mainly feeding on low ferns, seeds, and leaves of gymnosperms. This type of dinosaur has a robust body, strong limbs, and a body covered in dense armor plates, as well as the iconic tail hammer of ankylosauridae dinosaurs. In order to protect themselves, the 'Beast patterned Huaxia Armored Dragon' attacks with a flick of its tail. Its tail end has a bony tail hammer, which is the size of a grapefruit. Driven by strong tail muscles, the tail hammer can hit opponents like a shot put. It can be said that although it is a herbivorous dinosaur, the 'Beast patterned Huaxia Armored Dragon' will make predators of the same period wary Zhu Ziheng, a doctoral student at the Vertebrate Evolution Research Center of the School of Life Sciences, Yunnan University, said. Phylogenetic analysis shows that the "Beast patterned Huaxia Zhou Long" belongs to the Ankylosauridae family and has many primitive features, such as a heart-shaped anterior caudal vertebra similar to the nodosaurid family, a U-shaped posterior process in the distal tail, and unhealed tibia and talus. However, these features no longer exist in later Ankylosaurids. The discovery of the animal patterned Huaxia armored dragon further increased the species diversity of armored dinosaurs in southeastern China during the Late Cretaceous period Xu Xing, team leader and academician of the CAS Member, said. (New Society)