Outline: a typical sauropod
Protognathosaurus
"first jaw lizard"
Type species Protognathosaurus oxyodon
- Lived
- 171 to 155 million years ago, Middle Jurassic to Late Jurassic
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Sauropods, Cetiosauridae
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Olshevsky 1991
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
165 million years ago
Field notes
About Protognathosaurus
What it was like
Protognathosaurus was a long-necked, four-legged plant eater, known only from part of a lower jaw with teeth.
Its world
It lived in the Middle Jurassic in what is now China. Its jaw comes from the lower part of the Shaximiao Formation, where it shared the land with the long-necked Shunosaurus and the stegosaur Huayangosaurus.
How it was found
Its jaw was first given a name that turned out to belong already to another animal. Olshevsky gave it a new name in 1991.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Cetiosauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: G. Olshevsky. 1991. A revision of the parainfraclass Archosauria Cope, 1869, excluding the advanced Crocodylia. Mesozoic Meanderings 2:1-196