In 1930, the Swedish paleontologist Anders Birger Bohlin during the Swedish-Chinese expeditions of Sven Hedin discovered an ankylosaurian fossil near Tebch in Inner Mongolia.

[1] At first generally accepted as valid, even though a diagnosis had originally not been provided,[2] Sauroplites was later often considered a nomen dubium because it is based on fragmentary material.

However, in 2014 Victoria Megan Arbour discovered a clear unique trait, autapomorphy: the sacral or pelvic shield shows rosettes with a large central osteoderm surrounded by a single ring of smaller scutes.

The carcass had been deposited on its back and the bones had been eroded away, apart from some ribs and perhaps a piece of an ischium, leaving parts of the body armour in a largely articulated position.

[1] However, Arbour (2014) considered it possible that it was a member of the Nodosauridae in view of the possession of a sacral shield consisting of fused rosettes which is unknown with unequivocal ankylosaurids, even though nodosaurid remains from Asia are rare and contentious.