Dashanpusaurus
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 a group of Chinese paleontologists. The dinosaur's binomial name, Dashanpusaurus dongi, was named after a dinosaur expert of the Dashanpu area, Dong Zhiming.[1]
Dashanpusaurus | |
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Scientific classification | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Suborder: | †Sauropodomorpha |
Clade: | †Sauropoda |
Clade: | †Eusauropoda |
Clade: | †Neosauropoda |
Clade: | †Macronaria |
Clade: | †Camarasauridae |
Genus: | †Dashanpusaurus Peng, Ye, Gao, Shu, & Jiang, 2005 |
Species: | †D. dongi |
Binomial name | |
†Dashanpusaurus dongi Peng, Ye, Gao, Shu, & Jiang, 2005 | |
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 Jurassic formation called 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. Other than the dinosaur's holotype, numerous other Dashanpusaurus specimens have been recovered from the area among which the paratype ZDM 5027, another partial skeleton.
References
- Peng, G.; Y. Ye; Y. Gao; C. Shu; S. Jiang (2005). "A new camarasaurid from the Middle Jurassic, Xiashaximiao Formation in Dashanpu, China". Jurassic Dinosaur Faunas in Zigong: 81–85.