Jingshanosaurus

For the Early Cretaceous–age sauropod dinosaur, see Jiangshanosaurus.
Jingshanosaurus
Temporal range: Early Jurassic
Skeleton of Jingshanosaurus sinwaensis at the Beijing Museum of Natural History.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Suborder: Sauropodomorpha
Clade: Massopoda
Clade: Sauropodiformes
Genus: Jingshanosaurus
Zhang and Yang, 1995
Species:  J. xinwaensis
Binomial name
Jingshanosaurus xinwaensis
Zhang and Yang, 1995

Jingshanosaurus (meaning "Jingshan lizard") is a genus of sauropodomorph dinosaurs from the early Jurassic period. Its fossils, a nearly complete skeleton including the skull, were found near the town of Jingshan ("Golden Hill"), Lufeng County, Yunnan Province, China, from which the name derives.[1] First described in 1995, the type species is J. xinwaensis, formalized by Zhang and Yang.[2] Fossil remains of Jingshanosaurus had been exhibited in museums several years prior to the formal naming.

Jingshanosaurus may have been most closely related to Yunnanosaurus, and has, at times, been included in the Yunnanosauridae. In fact, Dong Zhiming considered Jingshanosaurus possibly a large specimen of Yunnanosaurus. If true, this would make Jingshanosaurus a junior synonym of Yunnanosaurus.

References

  1. Ben Creisler, Dinosauria Translation and Pronunciation Guide.
  2. Y. Zhang, and Z. Yang. (1995). A new complete osteology of Prosauropoda in Lufeng Basin, Yunnan, China. Yunnan Publishing House of Science and Technology, Kunming, China 1-100. [Chinese]