ZIGONGOSAURUS
a plant-eating mamenchisaurid sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of China.
Pronunciation: dzuh-GUNG-o-SOR-us
Meaning: Zigong lizard
Author/s: Hou, Zhao and Chao (
1976)
Synonyms: See
below
First Discovery: Sichuan, China
Discovery Chart Position: #253
Zigongosaurus fuxiensis
(Zigong Lizard from Fuxi)Etymology
Zigongosaurus is derived from "Zigong" (aka "Salt City"), a prefecture-level city that was formed from the merger of the area's two major salt-producing towns:
Ziliujing (Tzuliuching) and
Gongjing (Kungching) in 1939, and the Greek "sauros" (lizard).
The
species epithet,
fuxiensis, means "from Fuxi" in Latin, referring to the Fuxi River.
Mamenchisaurus fuxiensis (Zhang and Chen, 1996).
Discovery
The remains of
Zigongosaurus were discovered in the Shangshaximiao Formation at Wujiaba Dam Quarry on the Fuxi River (a tributary of the Tuo River), Zigong City, Sichuan Province, China, in 1974.
The
holotype (CV 02501) a partial lower jaw, a tooth-bearing bone from the upper jaw, and a bone from the braincase. Referred material includes bones from all areas of the skeleton, belonging to multiple individuals.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Jurassic
Stage: Oxfordian
Age range: 162-159 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 14 meters
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: ?
Diet: Herbivore
References
• Hou L-H, Zhou S-W and Chao S-C (1976) "
New discovery of sauropod dinosaurs from Sichuan".
Vertebrata PalAsiatica (in Chinese), 14(3): 160–165.
• Dong Z, Zhou S and Zhang H (1983). "Dinosaurs from the Jurassic of Sichuan".
Palaeontologia Sinica, New Series C (in Chinese), 162(33): 1–136.
• McIntosh JS (1990) "Sauropoda". Page 345–401 in Weishampel, Dodson and Osmólska (eds.) "
The Dinosauria: First Edition".
• Zhang Y and Chen W (1996) "Preliminary research on the classification of sauropods from Sichuan Basin, China". In Morales (ed.) "The Continental Jurassic".
Museum of Northern Arizona Bulletin, 60: 97–107.
• Martin-Rolland V (1999) "Les sauropodes chinois".
Revue Paléobiologie, Genève (in French), 18(1): 287–315.
• Upchurch P, Barrett PM and Dodson P (2004) "Sauropoda". Page 259–322 in Weishampel, Dodson and Osmólska (eds.) "
The Dinosauria: Second Edition".
• Wang J, Ye Y, Pei R, Tian Y, Feng C, Zheng D and Chang S-C (2020) "Age of Jurassic basal sauropods in Sichuan, China: A reappraisal of basal sauropod evolution".
GSA Bulletin, 130(9-10): 1493-1500. DOI: 10.1130/B31910.1.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
ZIGONGOSAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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