Dashanpusaurus
Name:
Dashanpusaurus
(Dashanpu lizard).
Phonetic: Dash-an-poo-sore-us.
Named By: Peng, Ye, Gao, Shu, &
Jiang - 2005.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Sauropoda, Macronaria, Camarasauridae.
Species: D. dongi (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Unavailable.
Known locations: China - Sichuan Province -
Lower Shaximiao Formation.
Time period: Bathonian/Callovian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Initially described from
fragmentary post cranial remains, further fossils have now been
attributed to it.
Dashanpusaurus
is identified as a macronarian sauropod
that might by related to the
North American Camarasaurus,
which means that it may have been a more
specialised high browser. This fits in with another genus of sauropod
from the Lower Shaximiao Formation called Abrosaurus
that has also been
considered to be a possible relative of Camarasaurus.
Interestingly
other sauropods from the Lower Shaximiao include Omeisaurus
and
Shunosaurus
but these are very different to both Abrosaurus
and Dashanpusaurus
in form. While the presence of these dinosaurs in the
same fossil formation proves that they were active in the same
approximate location and time as one another, they likely adopted
different feeding strategies and thus avoided something with each
other. There is however speculation that Dashanpusaurus
may have been
more similar to the aforementioned Shunosaurus.
Other
dinosaurs of the Lower Shaximiao include the small ornithischian
Agilisaurus
and the stegosaur
Huayangosaurus,
as well as numerous
predatory dinosaurs such as Gasosaurus,
Leshansaurus
and
Kaijiangosaurus.
However there was one theropod in particular called
Yangchuanosaurus
that would have been a particular threat to sauropods
like Dashanpusaurus. Yangchuanosaurus
was described from a set of
remains indicating that it was an eight metre long predator, but
further isolated fossils have since revealed that an upper length of
eleven meters was possible.
Further reading
- A new camarasaurid from the Middle Jurassic, Xiashaximiao Formation
in Dashanpu, China. - Jurassic Dinosaur Faunas in Zigong 81-85. - G.
Peng, Y. Ye, Y. Gao, C. Shu & S. Jiang - 2005.
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