Bienosaurus

Bienosaurus (meaning "Boien's lizard) is a dubious genus of thyreophoran dinosaur from the Early Jurassic (probably Hettangian to Sinemurian) Lower Lufeng Formation of Yunnan Province in China.

== Discovery and species == thumb|left|upright|Skull bones of the holotype The Lufeng Basin in China has been a location for the collection of Early Jurassic dinosaurs since 1938. In 1938 and 1939 Chinese paleontologist Mei Nien Bien collected material from the Dark Red Beds of the lower Lufeng Formation that included the nearly complete jaw and partial skull of a relative of the armored dinosaur Scelidosaurus, though it was not described as such until 2001. In 2001, Chinese paleontologist Dong Zhiming described this specimen, IVPP V 9612, as a new member of the family Scelidosauridae, Bienosaurus lufengensis. The genus name is in honor of the collector Bien and combines with it the Ancient Greek word σαυρος (sauros) for "lizard", while the specific name is for the Lufeng Basin where the holotype skull was found. The species name was originally going to honor Michael Crichton, author of Jurassic Park, as "Bienosaurus crichtoni". As it comes from the lower Lufeng Formation, Bienosaurus would be one of the earliest known ornithischians, living in the Hettangian to Sinemurian of the Early Jurassic.