Pronunciation: AY-see-AT-o-SOR-us
Meaning: Asiatic lizard
Author/s: Osborn (1924)
Synonyms: Chiayusaurus lacustris?
First Discovery: Övörkhangai, Mongolia
Discovery Chart Position: #139
Asiatosaurus mongoliensis
(Asiatic lizard from Mongolia)Etymology
Asiatosaurus is derived from "Aciatic" (for the American Museum of Natural History's 1922 Asiatic expedition to Mongolia, during which its remains were found) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard).
The species epithet, mongoliensis, means "from Mongolia" in Latin.
Possible synonyms
Chiayüsaurus lacustris (Bohlin, 1953)
Chiayusaurus lacustris (Bohlin, 1953).
Discovery
The first remains of Asiatosaurus were found
in the Oosh Formation—referred to as the Oshih (Ashile) formation by Henry Fairfield Osborn in 1924—at Red Mesa, Artsa Bogdo (aka Oshih or Oosh Basin), Ovorhangai province, Mongolia, by Walter Grainger during the Asiatic Expeditions of the AMNH in 1922.
Its type remains are two teeth: the holotype (AMNH 6264) and the paratype (AMNH 6296).
Osborn referred another tooth (AMNH 6532), found in the Oshih Basin during August, 1923 and given the field number 378, to Asiatosaurus. Strangely, a tooth fragment from the same area was also given the same field number.
Asiatosaurus kwangshiensis
Hou, Yeh and Zhao described Asiatosaurus kwangshiensis in 1975, based on a tooth, three broken neck vertebrae and some ribs (IVPP V4794) that were found at Liubangcun ("Luibang Quarry") in the Napai Formation, Fusui, China, in the summer of 1973.
It was initially identified as a brachiosaurid but might be a relative of Euhelopus, and no relation to Asiatosaurus mongoliensis which is known only from a few broken teeth.
Funnily enough, Asiatosaurus kwangshiensis and Prodeinodon kwangshiensis, that were found in the same quarry and coined by the same authors in the same paper (Hou, Yeh and Zhao, 1975), were both assigned to dinosaurs whose name-bearers were coined by the same author in the same paper to honour Mongolia—Asiatosaurus mongoliensis and Prodeinodon mongoliense (Osborn, 1924).
