[1] In June 2008, farmer Li Meiyun on a construction site at Huzhen in Jinyun County discovered the remains of an ankylosaur.

[1] In 2018, the type species Jinyunpelta sinensis was named and described by Zheng Wenjie, Jin Xingsheng, Yoichi Azuma, Wang Qiongying, Kazunori Miyata and Xu Xing.

The paratype is ZMNH M8963, a skeleton lacking the skull but including the left lower leg and a complete tail club.

[1] Jinyunpelta is known to have exhibited biphasal jaw movement, an adaptation that had previously been thought only to have evolved in ankylosaurids during the Campanian.

Below are two simplified cladograms from that study:[3] Cedarpelta Chuanqilong Liaoningosaurus Gobisaurus Shamosaurus Crichtonpelta Jinyunpelta Datai Pinacosaurus spp.

Tsagantegia Saichania Tarchia kielanae Zaraapelta Dyoplosaurus Talarurus Nodocephalosaurus Ziapelta Zuul Anodontosaurus lambei Scolosaurus Ankylosaurus Euoplocephalus

Crichtonpelta Akainacephalus Ziapelta Zaraapelta Talarurus Tsagantegia Minotaurasaurus Tarchia teresae Scolosaurus Dyoplosaurus Euoplocephalus Zuul Anodontosaurus lambei Ankylosaurus