Outline: a typical theropod
Eshanosaurus
"Eshan lizard"
Type species Eshanosaurus deguchiianus
- Lived
- 201 to 200 million years ago, Early Jurassic
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Theropods, Therizinosauridae
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Xu et al. 2001
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
200 million years ago
Field notes
About Eshanosaurus
What it was like
Eshanosaurus is known only from part of a lower jaw with teeth. The jaw looks like that of a therizinosaur, one of the long-clawed plant eaters with meat-eating ancestors.
If that is right, it would be by far the oldest therizinosaur and one of the oldest relatives of birds. Many scientists doubt this and think the jaw may come from an early long-necked plant eater instead.
Its world
It lived in the Early Jurassic in what is now southwestern China. Its jaw comes from the Lufeng Formation, where the plant eaters Lufengosaurus and Yunnanosaurus and the crested hunter Sinosaurus also lived.
How it was found
Xu and colleagues named Eshanosaurus in 2001, from a single find.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Therizinosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: X. Xu, X. Zhao, and J. M. Clark. 2001. A new therizinosaur from the Lower Jurassic Lower Lufeng Formation of Yunnan, China. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 21(3):477-483