Sinosaurus triassicus Sinosaurus
"Chinese lizard"
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Sinosaurus 5.8 m (19.2 ft) long
4 people holding hands
- Length
- 5.8 m (19.2 ft)
- Period
- Early Jurassic (201–196 Mya)
- Place
- China
- Food
- Carnivore
- Clade
- Dinosauria
Sinosaurus (meaning “Chinese lizard”) is an extinct genus of basal theropod dinosaur which lived during the Early Jurassic (Hettangian-Sinemurian). Fossils of the animal have been found in the Lufeng Formation, in the Yunnan Province of China. The type species, S. triassicus, was named by Chung Chieng Young in 1940. A second species, S. sinensis, was originally assigned to Dilophosaurus, but was later reassigned to Sinosaurus. Sinosaurus is morphologically similar to Dilophosaurus including the presence of a similarly shaped cranial crest, though its precise taxonomic position is uncertain, and the two genera may not be closely related.
What we know
- Named by Young, 1940.
- Body length estimated at about 5.85 m.
- Fossils found in China.