Yangchuanosaurus shangyouensis
Y. zigongensis
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© Australian Museum
Fast Facts
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Classification
- Species
- shangyouensis
- Genus
- Yangchuanosaurus
- Family
- Metriacanthosauridae
- Super Family
- Allosauroidea
- Order
- Avetheropoda
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Kingdom
- Animalia
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- Number of Species
- Two- Y. shangyouensis and Y. zigongensis
-
- Size Range
- Up to 8 metres long; weight estimated at 1.44 tons.
-
- Feeding Habits
- carnivorous
Introduction
Yangchuanosaurus shangyouensis
Pronounced YAHNG-CHWAHN-oh-SAWR-us
Meaning Lizard from Yang-ch’uan. The species name, shangyouensis, refers to the Shangyou Reservoir Dam, where labourers digging foundations for the Shangyou Reservoir Dam uncovered the first skeleton.
Yangchuanosaurus was a large, upright, fierce carnivore which lived around 160 million years ago as a top predator in China and preyed on other dinosaurs such as Mamenchisaurus.
This large carnivorous dinosaur was an allosaur, not a tyrannosaur.
Identification
Yangchuanosaurus shangyouensis had:
- dagger-like, curved teeth to help grasp prey;
- six large holes in the skull to help reduce its weight for better mobility;
- forward-facing eyes which gave it good depth perception;
- a long tail to help balance its body when running.
Compared to T. rex, Yangchuanosaurus was smaller and lighter, with longer arms. Like T. rex, it had a large skull, powerful legs.
Habitat
This dinosaurs locality is Shangyou Reservoir, which is in an Oxfordian/Kimmeridgian age terrestrial mudstone in the Shangshaximiao Formation of China.
Distribution
This dinosaur has only been found in Yangchuan county, Sichuan, China.
Feeding and diet
When Yangchuanosaurus roamed, tyrannosaurs were small and relatively primitive. They would have competed with and tried to evade Yangchuanosaurus and their huge blade-like teeth.
Fossils description
Yangchuanosaurus shangyouensis was named after the Shangyou reservoir in Yangchuan county, Sichuan. It was found during the construction of this reservoir in 1979.
The rock formation the fossils were found in have been dated 161–154 million years old (Late Jurassic).
In 1981, these fossils were nearly lost in a flood. Technicians were preparing Yangchuanosaurus at the Chongqing Museum of Natural History, China, when flood waters rose to cover the laboratory floor. And the water kept rising. After many hours, the technicians despaired and prepared to swim, but at last minute the flood began to recede. The technicians – and the Yangchuanosaurus – were saved.
Evolutionary relationships
Yangchuanosaurus shangyouensis was a large theropod or carnosaur. It belonged to the superfamily Allosauridae that occurred worldwide in the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous.
