Meet #Shunosaurus
A #sauropod #dinosaur you don’t often see a cast of, this one at the Hand of Man Museum on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.
This Chinese Middle Jurassic (~160 mya) cutie was named in 1983 by Zhiming e.a.. They provided an etymology: “Shu,” Pinyin romanization for the ancient abbreviation of Sichuan Province and “saur,” Greek for reptile.
“Sichuan Reptile” twas named alongside #Zizhongosaurus.
I find it fascinating to compare papers through time. This one, in the early 1980s, includes as a diagnosis, “A moderate-sized primitive sauropod, with a body length that may attain 11 m, and a skull that is moderately high with spoon-shaped teeth.” They note the cervicals and dorsals are “solid and anterior sacral centra are also unhoneycombed.” It has a short neck. They found a reasonably complete skeleton (5 cervs, 13 articulated dorsals, partial sacrum, two caudals) plus partial fore- and hindlimbs. # V9065.1-23
They concluded it was a relative of the #cetiosaurs, and listed a number of features that kept it from being referred to the “#prosauropods” as #sauropodomorphs were known until recently.
It isn’t clear what it is related to, despite (or because?) we have so many great specimens.. If one scores juveniles and adults it exacerbate things. To me, it is on the primitive side, near the base of the sauropod family tree.
A motherlode with nearly complete specimens of numerous size classes has been found. It is about as well-known as one can get for a sauropod, and would be amazing to study the original material. Alas, China is the one place I haven’t managed to visit yet.
It is most famous for its tail club (pics from Dong e.a. 1989 at end). Tail clubs were devastating thanks to such tremendous power channeled into a solid bony club. Shattered #theropod faces for sure!
Skeleton and skull from Zhang e.a. 1984. Amazing material!!!!
#FossilCrates
Fossil Crates