''Sanpasaurus'' ("Sanpa lizard") is a poorly known

sauropod Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

from the Early to

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 163.5 ± 1.0 to 145.0 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata.Owen 1987. In European lithostratigraphy, the ...

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of th ...

, China. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

, ''S. yaoi'', was described by Chung Chien Young, in 1944. The type remains, IVPP V.156, consists of 20

vertebra The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates, Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characterist ...

scapula The scapula (plural scapulae or scapulas), also known as the shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus (upper arm bone) with the clavicle (collar bone). Like their connected bones, the scapulae are paired, with each scapula on eithe ...

e, forelimbs, and some hindlimb bones.C.-C. Young. 1944. On the reptilian remains from Weiyuan, Szechuan, China. ''Bulletin of the Geological Society of China'' 24(3–4):187-205. Initially reported by Young as an

ornithopod Ornithopoda () is a clade of ornithischian dinosaurs, called ornithopods (), that started out as small, bipedal running grazers and grew in size and numbers until they became one of the most successful groups of herbivores in the Cretaceous worl ...

ornithischian Ornithischia () is an extinct order of mainly herbivorous dinosaurs characterized by a pelvic structure superficially similar to that of birds. The name ''Ornithischia'', or "bird-hipped", reflects this similarity and is derived from the Greek ...

, this specimen was unambiguously referred to

Sauropoda Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their ...

A mention buried at the bottom
of a long discussion of Asian sauropods, on the Dinosaur Mailing List.Upchurch, P. 1995. The evolutionary history of sauropod dinosaurs. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B'', 349:365-390. in 2016 by McPhee ''et al.'',McPhee BW, Upchurch P, Mannion PD, Sullivan C, Butler RJ, Barrett PM. (2016) A revision of ''Sanpasaurus yaoi'' Young, 1944 from the Early Jurassic of China, and its relevance to the early evolution of Sauropoda (Dinosauria) PeerJ 4:e2578 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2578 later refined to a basal gravisaurian position by Pol ''et al.'' in 2020 and 2022, closely related to '' Vulcanodon'' and '' Tazoudasaurus''. ''Sanpasaurus'' is known from remains recovered from the Maanshan Member of the Ziliujing Formation.

References

Early Jurassic dinosaurs of Asia Sauropods Taxa named by Yang Zhongjian Fossil taxa described in 1944 Paleontology in Sichuan {{Sauropodomorph-stub