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Suzhousaurus, Early CretaceousXiagou Formation, China · named 2007
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Suzhousaurus

Type species Suzhousaurus megatherioides

Lived
121 to 110 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
Diet
Herbivore
Group
Theropods, Therizinosauridae
Found in
China
Named by
Li et al. 2007

Where its fossils were found

The evidence

Today

2 finds

115 million years ago

Map: C. R. Scotese, PALEOMAP

Habitat

Rivers and lakes lay in basins with a warm, partly dry climate. Other dinosaurs from the region include Archaeoceratops, Psittacosaurus and Xiongguanlong.

Field notes

About Suzhousaurus

What it was like

Suzhousaurus was a large therizinosaur, a plant-eating theropod with a pot belly, a long neck and big hand claws. Its species name compares it to giant ground sloths, which had a similar build.

Its world

It lived in the Early Cretaceous, in what is now China. It shared its world with the parrot-beaked Psittacosaurus, the horned Archaeoceratops, the early tyrannosaur Xiongguanlong and the sauropod Qiaowanlong.

How it was found

Li and colleagues named Suzhousaurus in 2007. The type species is Suzhousaurus megatherioides.

Field gallery

More views of Suzhousaurus

Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.

Suzhousaurus in its habitat, photo 1

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 Suzhousaurus.

The evidence

The science behind Suzhousaurus

Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.

From its own fossils

  • The type specimen preserves back vertebrae, ribs, a right shoulder blade, an upper arm bone with expanded ends and a pubic bone with a deeply concave front edge.
  • A second partial skeleton, referred to it because its pubic bone matches, preserves vertebrae from the back, hips and base of the tail, much of the pelvis and a sturdy thigh bone that bends backward in its lower half.
  • A single isolated tooth has also been referred to Suzhousaurus.

Borrowed from relatives

  • The missing head is restored by comparison with Erlikosaurus, a therizinosaur with a well-known skull.
  • The hands and feet are restored by comparison with Nothronychus, a therizinosaur whose hands and feet are better known.

Still unknown

  • The shape of its skull and hand claws.
  • Its exact place in the therizinosaur family tree: one study puts it outside Therizinosauridae, while a later one groups it with more advanced therizinosaurs.
  • Exactly which plants it ate.

Discovery timeline

  1. 2001Its worldTang et al.
  2. 2007Named itLi et al.
  3. 2008New findLi, You & Zhang
  4. 2010Family treeZanno
  5. 2017How it fedButton et al.

Key papers

The research behind what we know of Suzhousaurus

Close relatives

Other members of Therizinosauridae

Sources: Wikidata