a type of plateosaurian sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of South Africa.
Pronunciation: JIP-o-SOR-us
Meaning: Vulture lizard
Author/s: Broom (
1911)
Synonyms: Gripposaurus (Barrett
et al., 2007)
First Discovery: Free State, South Africa
Discovery Chart Position: #101
Gyposaurus capensis
(Vulture Lizard from Cape Colony)Etymology
Gyposaurus is derived from the Greek "gyp-" (vulture) and "sauros" (lizard), referring to the outdated hypothesis that prosauropods were carnivorous.
The
species epithet,
capensis,
is derived from "cape" (for Cape Colony) and the Latin "-ensis" (from).
• Seeley HG (1894) "
LIII.—On Hortalotarsus skirtopodus, a new Saurischian fossil from Barkly East, Cape Colony".
Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 6. 14(84): 411-419. DOI: 10.1080/00222939408677828.
• Broom R (1905) "
On the South African dinosaur (Hortalotarsus)".
Transactions of the South African Philosophical Society, 16(3): 201-206.
• Broom R (1911) "
On the dinosaurs of the Stormberg, South Africa".
Annals of the South African Museum, 7(4): 291-308.
• Charig AJ (1967) "Archosauria". Page 708-718 in "The Fossil Record. A symposium with documentation".
Geological Society of London.
• Galton PM and Cluver MA (1976) "
Anchisaurus capensis (Broom) and a revision of the Anchisauridae (Reptilia, Saurischia)".
Annals of the South African Museum. 69(6): 121-159.
• Cooper MR (1981) "The prosauropod dinosaur
Massospondylus carinatus Owen from Zimbabwe: its biology, mode of life and phylogenetic significance".
Occasional Papers of the National Museums and Monuments of Rhodesia, Series B, Natural Sciences 6(10): 689-840.
• Yang Z (1940) "Preliminary notes on the Lufeng vertebrate fossils".
Bulletin of the Geological Society of China, 20(3-4): 235-240. DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-6724.1940.mp203-4003.x
• Young C-C (1941) "
Gyposaurus sinensis Young (sp. nov.) a new Prosauropoda from the Upper Triassic beds at Lufeng, Yunnan".
Bulletin of the Geological Society of China. 21 (2-4): 205-252. DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-6724.1941.mp212-4005.x
• Young C-C (1948) "Further notes on
Gyposaurus sinensis Young".
Bulletin of the Geological Society of China 28: 91-103.
• Galton PM (1976) "
Prosauropod dinosaurs (Reptilia: Saurischia) of North America".
Postilla, 169: 1-98.
• Dong Z (1992) "
Dinosaurian faunas of China".
• Galton PM and Upchurch P (2004) "Prosauropoda". Page 232–258 in Weishampel, Dodson and Osmólska (eds.) "
The Dinosauria: Second Edition".
• Barrett PM, Upchurch P, Zhou XD and Wang XL (2007) "
The skull of Yunnanosaurus huangi Young, 1942 (Dinosauria: Prosauropoda) from the Lower Lufeng Formation (Lower Jurassic) of Yunnan, China".
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 150(2): 319-341. DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2007.00290.x.
• Wang YM, You HL, Otero A and Wang T (2017) "Taxonomy of "
Gyposaurus"
sinesis Young, 1941 from the Early Jurassic Lufeng Formation of Yunnan Province, southwestern China".
SVP 2017 Meeting Program and Abstracts. Society of Vertebrate Paleontology 77th Annual Meeting. Calgary: Society of Vertebrate Paleontology. Page 210.
• Ya-Ming Wang, Qi Zhao & Hai-Lu You (2024) "Reassessment of "
Gyposaurus"
sinensis Young, 1941 (Dinosauria: Sauropodomorpha) from the Early Jurassic Lufeng Basin, Yunnan Province, China".
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society: zlae032.
DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae032.
Time stands still for no man, and research is ongoing. If you spot an error, or want to expand, edit or add a dinosaur, please use
this form. Go
here to contribute to our FAQ.
All dinos are GM free, and no herbivores were eaten during site construction!
To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
GYPOSAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
‹
http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/GYPOSAURUS›. Web access: 06th Mar 2026.
