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Yangchuanosaurus
''Yangchuanosaurus'' is an extinct genus of metriacanthosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in China from the Middle Jurassic to Late Jurassic periods (Bathonian to Tithonian stages), and was similar (although slightly larger) in size and appearance to its North American and European relative, ''Allosaurus''. ''Yangchuanosaurus'' hails from the Upper Shaximiao Formation and was the largest predator in a landscape that included the sauropods ''Mamenchisaurus'' and ''Omeisaurus'' and the stegosaurs '' Chialingosaurus'', ''Tuojiangosaurus'' and '' Chungkingosaurus''. This theropod was named after the area in which was discovered, Yongchuan, in China. Discovery and species Dong ''et al.'' (1978) named ''Yangchuanosaurus shangyouensis'' on the basis of CV 00215, a complete skull and skeleton which was collected from the Shangshaximiao Formation, near Yongchuan, Yongchuan District, Sichuan. It dates to the Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic period, about 161.2 to 157.3&nbs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yangchuanosaurus Zigongensis
''Yangchuanosaurus'' is an extinct genus of metriacanthosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in People's Republic of China, China from the Middle Jurassic to Late Jurassic periods (Bathonian to Tithonian stages), and was similar (although slightly larger) in size and appearance to its North American and European relative, ''Allosaurus''. ''Yangchuanosaurus'' hails from the Upper Shaximiao Formation and was the largest predator in a landscape that included the sauropods ''Mamenchisaurus'' and ''Omeisaurus'' and the Stegosauria, stegosaurs ''Chialingosaurus'', ''Tuojiangosaurus'' and ''Chungkingosaurus''. This theropod was named after the area in which was discovered, Yongchuan, in China. Discovery and species Dong ''et al.'' (1978) named ''Yangchuanosaurus shangyouensis'' on the basis of Municipal Museum of Chongqing, CV 00215, a complete skull and skeleton which was collected from the Shangshaximiao Formation, near Yongchuan, Yongchuan District, Sichuan. It dates to the Oxfo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metriacanthosaurid
Metriacanthosauridae (Greek for "moderately-spined lizards") is an extinct family of allosauroid theropod dinosaurs that lived in Europe and Asia from the Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. The family is split into two subgroups: Metriacanthosaurinae, which includes dinosaurs closely related to '' Metriacanthosaurus'', and another group composed of the close relatives of ''Yangchuanosaurus''. Metriacanthosaurids are considered carnosaurs, belonging to the Allosauroidea superfamily. The group includes species of large range in body size. Of their physical traits, most notable are their neural spines.Bailey, Jack Bowman. "Neural Spine Elongation in Dinosaurs: Sailbacks or Buffalo-Backs?" Journal of Paleontology, vol. 71, no. 06, 1997, pp. 1124–1146., doi:10.1017/s0022336000036076. The records of the group are mostly confined to Asia, though ''Metriacanthosaurus'' is known from Europe. Metriacanthosauridae is used as a senior synonym of Sinraptoridae. Diagnostic traits Met ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shangshaximiao Formation
The Shaximiao Formation () is a Middle to Late Jurassic aged geological formation in Sichuan, China, most notable for the wealth of dinosaurs fossils that have been excavated from its strata. The Shaximiao Formation is exposed in and around the small township of Dashanpu (), situated seven kilometres north-east from Sichuan's third largest city, Zigong, in the Da'an District. Geology The Shaximiao Formation includes two distinct subunits: The upper and lower Shaximiao Formations (), although they are commonly referred to as one, simply being called the "Shaximiao Formation". The upper Shaximiao Formation is also known as the Shangshaximiao Formation, and the lower Shaximiao Formation is also known as the Xiashaximiao Formation, which are direct transliterations of the Chinese names. Both subunits primarily consist of purple-red mudstones, with variable sand inclusion. and siltstones with interbedded sandstones. Dinosaur finds The Shaximiao Formation has produced mainly sa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Szechuanosaurus
''Szechuanosaurus'' (" Szechuan lizard") is an extinct genus of carnivorous theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic. Fossils referred to the genus have been found in China, Asia in the Oxfordian-?Tithonian (Peng ''et al''., 2005). Its type species is based on several undiagnostic teeth from the Kuangyuan Series. Additional possible specimens of ''Szechuanosaurus'' were also reported from the Kalaza Formation, also located in China. ''Szechuanosaurus'' is at times regarded as a ''nomen dubium'' due to the lack of diagnostic features in the fossilized teeth upon which the genus is based. Although the fossils are too fragmentary for confident identification, ''Szechuanosaurus'' is often interpreted as a medium-sized allosaurid or perhaps a metriacanthosaurid, capable of reaching lengths of around 7.3 meters. Discovery and species Three species have been assigned to this genus over the years. The type species is ''Szechuanosaurus campi'', named by Yang Zhongjian ("Chung Chien Y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Metriacanthosaurus
''Metriacanthosaurus'' (meaning "moderately-spined lizard") is a genus of metriacanthosaurid dinosaur from the Oxford Clay Formation of England, dating to the Late Jurassic period, about 160 million years ago (lower Oxfordian). It is the only named metriacanthosaurid known outside of Asia. History of discovery The holotype of ''Metriacanthosaurus parkeri'', specimen OUM J.12144, was discovered in 1871 by W. Parker at Jordan's Cliff, near Weymouth, Dorset, on the southwest coast of England. The specimen includes an incomplete hip, a leg bone, and part of a backbone; the geologist John Phillips briefly commented on the specimen during the same year. These bones were from the Oxford Clay Formation, which dates to the Upper Jurassic. In 1923, German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene wrote a paper on Jurassic and Cretaceous European carnivorous dinosaurs within Saurischia. In this paper, he examined OUM J.12144, assigning it to a new species of ''Megalosaurus'': ''Megalosaur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tuojiangosaurus
''Tuojiangosaurus'' (meaning " Tuo River lizard") is a genus of herbivorous stegosaurian dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Period, recovered from the Upper Shaximiao Formation of what is now Sichuan Province in China. Description ''Tuojiangosaurus'' was a large stegosaur, reaching in length and in body mass. Physically similar to the North American ''Stegosaurus'', ''Tuojiangosaurus'' is the best understood of the Chinese stegosaurs. In 1977, Dong provided a diagnosis but this largely consisted of traits shared with other stegosaurus. In 1990, Peter Malcolm Galton pointed out an autapomorphy: the spines of the vertebrae of the tail base possess spines with bony skirts running from their front to the sides. In 2006, Susannah Maidment and Guangbiao Wei would identify two other diagnostic characters: the frontal bones are wider than they are long, and the supraacetabular and posterior processes of the ilium are well-separated. ''Tuojiangosaurus'' has the typical narrow and l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allosaurus
''Allosaurus'' ( ) is an extinct genus of theropod dinosaur that lived 155 to 145 million years ago during the Late Jurassic period ( Kimmeridgian to late Tithonian ages). The first fossil remains that could definitively be ascribed to this genus were described in 1877 by Othniel C. Marsh. The name "''Allosaurus''" means "different lizard", alluding to its lightweight , which Marsh believed were unique. The genus has a very complicated taxonomy and includes at least three valid species, the best known of which is ''A. fragilis''. The bulk of ''Allosaurus'' remains come from North America's Morrison Formation, with material also known from the Alcobaça Formation and Lourinhã Formation in Portugal. It was known for over half of the 20th century as '' Antrodemus'', but a study of the abundant remains from the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry returned the name "''Allosaurus''" to prominence. As one of the first well-known theropod dinosaurs, it has long attracted attention ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Omeisaurus
''Omeisaurus'' (meaning "Omei lizard") is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Middle to Late Jurassic Period (Bathonian- Oxfordian stage) of what is now China. Its name comes from Mount Emei, where it was discovered in the lower Shaximiao Formation of Sichuan Province. Like most sauropods, ''Omeisaurus'' was herbivorous and large. The largest species, ''O. tianfuensis'', measured long, and weighed . Other species were much smaller, as the type species ''O. junghsiensis'' reached a size of in length and in body mass, and ''O. maoianus'' reached a size of and . Discovery and species Initial discovery and ''O. changshouensis'' The initial discovery of ''Omeisaurus'' was in 1936 when Charles Lewis Camp and Yang Zhongjian collected a partial skeleton from strata of the Shaximiao Formation in Sichuan, China.Young, C. C. (1939)On a new Sauropoda, with notes on other fragmentary reptiles from Szechuan ''Bulletin of the Geological Society of China'', ''19''(3), 279-315.Do ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Late Jurassic
The Late Jurassic is the third Epoch (geology), epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time scale, geologic time from 161.5 ± 1.0 to 143.1 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic stratum, strata.Owen 1987. In European lithostratigraphy, the name "Malm" indicates rocks of Late Jurassic age. In the past, ''Malm'' was also used to indicate the unit of geological time, but this usage is now discouraged to make a clear distinction between lithostratigraphic and geochronologic/chronostratigraphic units. Subdivisions The Late Jurassic is divided into three ages, which correspond with the three (faunal) stages of Upper Jurassic rock: Paleogeography During the Late Jurassic Epoch, Pangaea broke up into two supercontinents, Laurasia to the north, and Gondwana to the south. The result of this break-up was the emergence of the Atlantic Ocean, which initially was relatively narrow. Life forms This epoch is well known for many famous types of d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chungkingosaurus
''Chungkingosaurus'', meaning "Chongqing Lizard", is a rather controversial genus of Herbivore, herbivorous dinosaur from the Late Jurassic Upper Shaximiao Formation in what is now China. It is a member of the Stegosauria. It is also a quadruped dinosaur. Description According to Dong e.a. the ''Chungkingosaurus jiangbeiensis'' holotype was one of the smallest stegosaurs with a length of less than four metres, even though it was apparently an adult, judging by the ossification of the sacrum. ''Chungkingosaurus'' sp. 1 was estimated at five metres; ''Chungkingosaurus'' sp. 2 was seen as longer than five metres. Dong e.a. indicated that ''Chungkingosaurus'' strongly resembled ''Tuojiangosaurus'', found in the same formation, in many anatomical details. ''Chungkingosaurus'' was different in its smaller size, deeper snout and front lower jaws (resulting in a relatively high and narrow skull), and non-overlapping teeth with less pronounced denticles. ''Chungkingosaurus'' probably po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutionary history, evolution of dinosaurs is a subject of active research. They became the dominant terrestrial vertebrates after the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event 201.3 mya and their dominance continued throughout the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The fossil record shows that birds are feathered dinosaurs, Evolution of birds, having evolved from earlier Theropoda, theropods during the Late Jurassic epoch, and are the only dinosaur lineage known to have survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event approximately 66 mya. Dinosaurs can therefore be divided into avian dinosaurs—birds—and the extinct non-avian dinosaurs, which are all dinosaurs other than birds. Dinosaurs are varied from taxonomy (biology), taxonomic, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
