Gigantspinosaurus
Gigantspinosaurus was a medium-sized stegosaur, a plated dinosaur that walked on four legs and ate plants. It had a huge pair of comma-shaped spines on its shoulders, and its fossils even preserved the first skin impressions ever found for a stegosaur.1
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Fun facts
Gigantspinosaurus means 'giant spine lizard,' named for the huge comma-shaped spines on its shoulder blades.1
Its fossils include the first skin impressions ever found for any stegosaur, showing what its skin looked like.1
It lived about 168 to 161 million years ago, during the Middle to Late Jurassic.2
Gigantspinosaurus was a medium-sized stegosaur, bigger than the early Huayangosaurus but smaller than later stegosaurs like Tuojiangosaurus.1
The only known skeleton is almost complete, including a pair of lower jaws, neck and back bones, and a fused hip bone.6
Scientists think it was an adult because its teeth were worn down from chewing tough plants.1
Most asked questions about Gigantspinosaurus
?How big was Gigantspinosaurus?
About 4.2 to 7 metres (14 to 23 ft) long and around 700 kilograms (1,500 lb) in weight.3
?What did Gigantspinosaurus eat?
It ate plants. Its teeth were small and leaf-shaped, and the wear on them suggests it chewed tough plants.34
?Why did Gigantspinosaurus have shoulder spines?
Scientists are not sure. The huge comma-shaped spines were probably for defence or display, but no source gives a definite answer.35
?When did Gigantspinosaurus live?
It lived during the Late Jurassic, about 150 million years ago, in what is now China.34
?Was Gigantspinosaurus a dinosaur?
Yes, it was a stegosaur, a type of plated dinosaur that walked on four legs.3
?Did Gigantspinosaurus have feathers?
No, it had skin with scales. Its fossils preserved skin impressions showing rosettes of scales, not feathers.3
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Gigantspinosaurus
- Named by
- Ouyang 19926
- Group
- Plated dinos
- Family / clade
- Huayangosauridae6
- Classification
- Ornithischia > Stegosauria > Thyreophora6
- Age of the rocks
- 168 to 162 million years (Bathonian / Callovian)6
- Rock formations
- Shaximiao6
- Countries
- China6
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database6
- Discovery
- Gigantspinosaurus was first named in 1992 by Chinese paleontologist Ouyang in a lecture abstract, but it was not fully described until a 2018 study by Baoqiao Hao and colleagues.21
- Still debated
- Scientists still debate exactly where Gigantspinosaurus fits in the stegosaur family tree. Some place it in Huayangosaurinae, others in Stegosauridae.21
Where the facts come from
- Redescription of Gigantspinosaurus sichuanensis (Dinosauria, Stegosauria) from the Late Jurassic of Sichuan, Southwestern China (onlinelibrary.wiley.com)
- PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
- Gigantspinosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
- Redescription of Gigantspinosaurus sichuanensis (Dinosauria, Stegosauria) from the Late Jurassic of Sichuan, Southwestern China (zdm.cn)
- G is for Gigantspinosaurus (smithsonianmag.com)
- Gigantspinosaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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