Genus
Valid Extinct

Yunnanosaurus

Young 1940

Yunnanosaurus is an extinct genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived approximately 199 to 183 million years ago in what is now the Yunnan Province, in China, for which it was named. Yunnanosaurus was a large sized, moderately-built, ground-dwelling, quadrupedal herbivore, that could also walk bipedally, and ranged in size from 7 meters (23 feet) long and 2 m (6.5 ft) high to 4 m (13 ft) high in the largest species.

Temporal range
Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
Paleogene
Neogene
252 201 145 66 0 Ma
PBDB occurrences
17
Group
Dinosaures
Terrestrial
Yunnanosaurus
click to enlarge
Jaw of Yunnanosaurus huangi on display at the Tianjin Natural History Museum. © Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia
PBDB ↗ Wikipedia ↗
Classification
Dinosauria Unranked clade
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Saurischia Unranked clade
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Sauropodomorpha Unranked clade
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Massopoda Unranked clade
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Sauropodiformes Unranked clade
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Yunnanosaurus Genus
Measurements
Length
5 m ⓘ
Yunnanosaurus huangi — min connu
10,8 m ⓘ
Yunnanosaurus youngi   — max connu
7 m ⓘ
Mass
2 600 kg ⓘ
Yunnanosaurus youngi   — min connu
250 kg ⓘ
Yunnanosaurus huangi — max connu
Fossil sites 17 geolocated sites
Distribution
Top countries
🇨🇳 China
17
Geological formations
Lufeng
16
Fengjiahe
1
Temporal distribution
Pliensbachian (192.9–184.2 Ma)
1
Sinemurian (199.5–192.9 Ma)
13
Hettangian (201.4–199.5 Ma)
3
Species (3)
Yunnanosaurus huangi 201 Ma
Yunnanosaurus robustus 200 Ma
Yunnanosaurus youngi 193 Ma
Images 1
Bibliography
Original description
C.-C. Young. 1940. Preliminary notes on the Lufeng vertebrate fossils. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China 20(3-4):235-239
Bibliography (8)
L. Xing, E. M. Roberts, and J. D. Harris, M. K. Gingras, H. Ran, J. Zhang, X. Xu, M. E. Burns, Z. Dong. 2013. Novel insect traces on a dinosaur skeleton from the Lower Jurassic Lufeng Formation of China. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 388(2):58-68 DOI ↗
J. Lü, T. Li, and S. Zhong, Y. Azuma, M. Fujita, Z. Dong, Q. Ji. 2007. New yunnnosaurid dinosaur (Dinosauria, Prosauropoda) From the Middle Jurassic Zhanghe Formation of Yuanmou, Yunnan province of China. Memoir of the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum 6:1-15
S. Hu. 1993. [A new Theropoda (Dilophosaurus sinensis sp. nov.) from Yunnan, China]. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 31(1):65-69
D. J. Simmons. 1965. The non-therapsid reptiles of the Lufeng Basin, Yunnan, China. Fieldiana: Geology 15(1):1-93 DOI ↗
S.-Y. Hu. 1961. [Some reptilian fossils from Lufeng, China]. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 5(3):278-283
C.-C. Young. 1951. The Lufeng saurischian fauna in China. Palaeontologia Sinica, New Series C 13:1-96
C.-C. Young. 1942. Yunnanosaurus huangi Young (gen. et sp. nov.), a new Prosauropoda from the Red Beds at Lufeng, Yunnan. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China 22(1-2):63-104
C.-C. Young. 1940. Preliminary notes on the Lufeng vertebrate fossils. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China 20(3-4):235-239