Dino card No. 0510 of 2,027

Dianmeisaurus

Say it: dee-AN-may-SORE-us

Name means: “beautiful lizard from Dian (an old name for Yunnan, China)”1

Ate: MeatSea reptilesMiddle TriassicNot technically a dinosaur

Dianmeisaurus was a tiny, slender marine reptile that swam in warm seas during the Middle Triassic, about 245 million years ago. It had a long body and a small head with big eyes, and it probably hunted small fish and shrimp in the water.2 3

Fun fact: this sea reptile swam while dinosaurs walked on land. Everyone calls them dinos, but they were a different branch of reptiles.

Lived

247 to 241 million years ago4

Middle Triassic

Fossils found in

Luoping County, Yunnan Province, China2 3

Food

Meat3

Length

0.5 m3

total length less than 50 cm

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 3 bananas end to end

How big was Dianmeisaurus compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Dianmeisaurus was very small, with a total body length of less than 50 centimetres (about 20 inches).3

It had 41 vertebrae in its neck and back before the hips, which is a lot for such a small reptile.3

Its eyes were very large compared to the openings behind them on the skull, helping it see in dim water.3

The space between its eyes was extremely narrow, a feature that helps scientists tell it apart from similar reptiles.2 1

Dianmeisaurus lived alongside two other small marine reptiles in the same ancient sea: Diandongosaurus and Dianopachysaurus.3

The second species, Dianmeisaurus mutaensis, was named in 2024 and its skeleton probably came from a young animal.1

Its front leg bones (the ulna) were wider at the top than at the bottom, which is unusual.3

AI-made picture of Dianmeisaurus — An AI-made picture of how Dianmeisaurus might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

Ask Rex about Dianmeisaurus

Rex only answers questions about this page. 3 questions a day.

Rex is an AI and can make mistakes. He runs on servers in the EU and questions are never saved. Never type your name or other personal things.

For dino experts

Scientific name: Dianmeisaurus
Named by: Shang and Li 20154
Group: Sea reptiles
Family / clade: Pachypleurosauria4
Classification: Sauropterygia4
Age of the rocks: 247 to 241 million years ()4
Rock formations: Guanling4
Countries: China4
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: The first species, Dianmeisaurus gracilis, was named by Shang Qinghua and Li Chun in 2015 based on a nearly complete skeleton from Luoping, Yunnan, China. A second species, D. mutaensis, was added in 2024 by Hu, Li and Liu.2 1 3
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether Dianmeisaurus is more closely related to European pachypleurosaurs or to the nothosauroid group of marine reptiles.3

Where the facts come from

Dianmeisaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
A new small-sized eosauropterygian（Diapsida:Sauropterygia） from the Middle Triassic of Luoping,Yunnan,southwestern China Chinese Full Text (cnki.net)
Dianmeisaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

Rex is hungry! Dino Wiki is a dad's project for his dino-loving son, free with no ads. Grown-ups can feed Rex a snack to help keep it online.Feed Rex