Datousaurus
"chieftain lizard"
Type species Datousaurus bashanensis
- Lived
- 175 to 155 million years ago, Middle Jurassic to Late Jurassic
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Length
- about 15 m (49 ft)
- Group
- Sauropods
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Dong and Tang 1984
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in metersOutline: typical sauropod shape
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
165 million years ago
Habitat
It lived inland in China, on land where layers of sand and mud accumulated. Its dinosaur neighbors included Shunosaurus, Huayangosaurus and Gasosaurus.
Field notes
About Datousaurus
What it was like
Datousaurus was a sauropod about 15 meters (49 feet) long. It had a large, deep skull for a sauropod and a fairly short neck.
Its world
It lived in the Jurassic, in what is now China. It comes from the Shaximiao Formation, where it shared the land with the sauropod Shunosaurus, the stegosaur Huayangosaurus and the predator Gasosaurus.
How it was found
Dong and Tang named Datousaurus in 1984. The type species is Datousaurus bashanensis.
Field gallery
More views of Datousaurus
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
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 Datousaurus.
The evidence
The science behind Datousaurus
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- Datousaurus comes from the Shaximiao Formation in China.
- Its fossils include a large, deep skull and an incomplete skeleton.
Borrowed from relatives
- Other early sauropods, such as Shunosaurus, help fill in missing bones and restore its four-legged stance.
Still unknown
- Its skin and color.
- Which plants it preferred.
- How its body proportions changed as it grew.
Discovery timeline
- 1984Named itDong & Tang
- 2002Close relativeChatterjee & Zheng
- 2022Same rocksDai et al.
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Datousaurus
Named it
Named Datousaurus from Jurassic fossils in China and compared it with Shunosaurus.
[Note on a new Mid-Jurassic sauropod (Datousaurus bashanensis gen. et sp. nov.) from Sichuan Basin, China]. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 22: 69-75
No link available
Close relative
Described the skull and tooth replacement of Shunosaurus, a useful comparison for the early sauropods that lived alongside Datousaurus.
Cranial anatomy of Shunosaurus, a basal sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of China. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 136: 145-169
Read the paper : Cranial anatomy of Shunosaurus, a basal sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of China (opens in a new tab)Same rocks
Described Yuzhoulong from the lower Shaximiao Formation, showing that more advanced sauropods also lived in this region during the Jurassic.
New macronarian from the Middle Jurassic of Chongqing, China: phylogenetic and biogeographic implications for neosauropod dinosaur evolution. Royal Society Open Science 9
Read the paper : New macronarian from the Middle Jurassic of Chongqing, China: phylogenetic and biogeographic implications for neosauropod dinosaur evolution (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Eusauropoda
Sources: Wikidata