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Datousaurus
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Datousaurus

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Datousaurus (meaning "chieftain lizard" or "big-head lizard"; originally named using the Malay datu, after its Chinese nickname qiulong - literally "chieftain dragon" - but also a pun on its big head; da tou means "big head" in Chinese) is a sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Lower Shaximiao Formation in Sichuan province, China. It shared the local Middle Jurassic landscape with other sauropods such as Shunosaurus, Omeisaurus, and Protognathosaurus, the neornithischian Xiaosaurus, and the early stegosaur Huayangosaurus as well as the carnivorous Gasosaurus.

Wikidata facts

Parent taxon
Mamenchisauridae
Image
Datousaurus.jpg
Length
15.0
Show 6 more facts
Commons category
Datousaurus
taxon name
Datousaurus
taxon rank
genus
time period
Middle Jurassic
location of discovery
China
main food source
herbivore
Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

~2 min read

Encyclopedic overview

4 sections
Contents
  • Discovery and species
  • Paleobiology
  • ''Datousaurus'' and ''Shunosaurus''
  • References

Datousaurus (meaning "chieftain lizard" or "big-head lizard"; originally named using the Malay datu, after its Chinese nickname qiulong - literally "chieftain dragon" - but also a pun on its big head; da tou means "big head" in Chinese) is a sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Lower Shaximiao Formation in Sichuan province, China. It shared the local Middle Jurassic landscape with other sauropods such as Shunosaurus, Omeisaurus, and Protognathosaurus, the neornithischian Xiaosaurus, and the early stegosaur Huayangosaurus as well as the carnivorous Gasosaurus.

==Discovery and species== thumb|left|Jaws and teeth Datousaurus was named by Dong Zhiming and Tang Zilu in 1984. To date, only two partial skeletons have been discovered. Neither had an articulated skull, although one skull has been discovered that has been attributed to the genus.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Datousaurus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (2)