Daanosaurus
"Da'an lizard"
Type species Daanosaurus zhangi
- Lived
- 155 to 143 million years ago, Late Jurassic
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Sauropods, Mamenchisauridae
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Ye et al. 2005
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
150 million years ago
Habitat
Rivers, lakes and floodplains covered its part of China. The Shaximiao Formation also preserves Mamenchisaurus, Yangchuanosaurus and Tuojiangosaurus.
Field notes
About Daanosaurus
What it was like
Daanosaurus was a long-necked, four-legged plant eater, known from the partial skeleton of a young animal. It was a relative of Mamenchisaurus.
Its world
It lived in the Late Jurassic in what is now China. Its bones come from the Shaximiao Formation, where it shared the land with Mamenchisaurus and the big hunter Yangchuanosaurus.
How it was found
Ye and colleagues named Daanosaurus in 2005, from a single find.
Field gallery
More views of Daanosaurus
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
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Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
A rock formation can hold fossils laid down millions of years apart, so not every animal here met Daanosaurus.
The evidence
The science behind Daanosaurus
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- A partial skeleton of a young animal includes skull bones, neck and back vertebrae and neck ribs. The skull bone above the eye has a smooth outer rim.
- The front ends of the neck ribs are forked.
- Its neck vertebrae have low, long spines, while the back vertebrae have broad, plate-shaped spines.
Borrowed from relatives
- Mamenchisaurus youngi offers a comparison for the missing front of the skull and the limbs.
- The young skull is compared with Bellusaurus to separate juvenile features from differences between species.
Still unknown
- Its adult size and proportions, and whether an adult of the same species has already been named as another dinosaur.
- Its skin texture and color.
- Its family placement: different analyses favor a mamenchisaurid or an early diplodocoid.
Discovery timeline
- 2005Named itYe, Gao & Jiang
- 2018Growing upMoore et al.
- 2023Family treeMoore et al.
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Daanosaurus
Named it
Named a sauropod from a young skeleton with distinctive neck vertebrae, broad back spines and forked neck ribs.
A new genus of sauropod from Zigong, Sichuan. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 43: 175-181
No link available
Growing up
Compared juvenile sauropod skulls, including Daanosaurus, and examined how skull features change during growth.
Cranial anatomy of Bellusaurus sui (Dinosauria: Eusauropoda) from the Middle-Late Jurassic Shishugou Formation of northwest China and a review of sauropod cranial ontogeny. PeerJ 6: e4881
Read the paper : Cranial anatomy of Bellusaurus sui (Dinosauria: Eusauropoda) from the Middle-Late Jurassic Shishugou Formation of northwest China and a review of sauropod cranial ontogeny (opens in a new tab)Family tree
Some growth-aware analyses placed Daanosaurus and Bellusaurus among juvenile mamenchisaurids; other analytical treatments gave Daanosaurus a different position.
Re-assessment of the Late Jurassic eusauropod Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum Russell and Zheng, 1993, and the evolution of exceptionally long necks in mamenchisaurids. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 21
Read the paper : Re-assessment of the Late Jurassic eusauropod Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum Russell and Zheng, 1993, and the evolution of exceptionally long necks in mamenchisaurids (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Mamenchisauridae
Sources: Wikidata