The genus has a single species, Liushusaurus acanthocaudata, and is known from eight fossils, several of which preserve soft tissue detail.

[1] Liushusaurus is one of eight lizards that are known and have been named from the Yixian Formation, part of the diverse Jehol Biota ecosystem.

[1] Several fossil specimens show a high degree of preservation, with intact scales, pigmentation, claw sheaths, cartilage, and small bones.

These bones support the cartilage and membrane that makes up the braincase, and are rarely preserved in fossil lizards.

This encompasses several other extinct taxa, such as Ardeosaurus and Bavarisaurus from the Late Jurassic Solnhofen limestone of Germany.

However, the results of the phylogenetic analysis were uncertain because of difficulties in distinguishing stem scleroglossans based on their morphology.

Liushusaurus may have been more similar in appearance to the living Chuckwalla (Sauromalus) of North America, which has a broad rather than flat body.

[1] Liushusaurus likely climbed on rough surfaces such as rocks and vegetation, aided by long, sharp claws, relatively symmetrical feet, long forelimbs, and well-developed scales on the undersides of its digits called tubercular plantar digital scales.

The flattened body may have been useful in thermoregulation, providing a greater surface area for heat from the sun to reach while basking.

Alternatively, the depressed body shape could have helped Liushusaurus control falls like the living Leiolepis, or Butterfly lizard.

[1] Many species of dragonflies have been described from the Yixian Formation,[2] as well as gnats,[3] mayflies,[4] beetles,[5] and many other insects, and may have been part of the diet of Liushusaurus.