Dashanpusaurus dongi

"Dashanpu lizard"

You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Dashanpusaurus 5 m (16.4 ft) long
as long as 3 people standing fingertip to fingertip
Length
5 m (16.4 ft)
Period
Middle Jurassic (165 Mya)
Place
China
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Dinosauria The clade containing all dinosaurs, terrestrial archosaurs with upright limbs.

Dashanpusaurus (meaning “Dashanpu lizard” after the township it was discovered in) is an extinct genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the middle of the Jurassic period. The dinosaur was described in 2005 by Peng Guangzhao, Ye Yong, Gao Yuhui, Shu Chunkang, and Jiang Shan. Its type and only species is Dashanpusaurus dongi, named in honor of the paleontologist Dong Zhiming.

Dashanpusaurus was a herbivore and was quadrupedal, like most others in the Sauropoda. The Dashanpusaurus holotype, ZDM 5028, a partial skeleton lacking the skull, was unearthed in the Sichuan, China township of Dashanpu, in a layer of the Shaximiao Formation. Dashanpu is only seven kilometres from Zigong, the city where the dinosaur’s remains are being held. It consisted of many bone fragments and vertebrae, as well as a partial pelvis and other hind pieces.

What we know

  • Named by Peng et al., 2005.
  • Fossils found in China.

What we guess

The reconstruction notes for Dashanpusaurus — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.