Gongpoquansaurus

Say it: GONG-poh-kwan-SORE-us

Name means: “Gongpoquan reptile”1

Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersEarly Cretaceous

Gongpoquansaurus was a plant-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now China during the Early Cretaceous. It had a beak and walked on four legs, but could probably run on two legs when it needed to. This dinosaur is one of the many amazing creatures found in the Mazongshan Dinosaur Fauna.1 2

Lived

113 to 110 million years ago4

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Gongpoquan Basin, Mazongshan area, Gansu Province, China1

Food

Plants3

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Gongpoquansaurus was first thought to be a species of Probactrosaurus, but scientists later gave it its own name in 2014.1

Its fossils were found in the Zhonggou Formation, which is about 113 to 110 million years old.3

This dinosaur lived alongside other plant-eaters like Auroraceratops and the huge therizinosaur Suzhousaurus.2

Gongpoquansaurus is a basal hadrosauroid, meaning it was an early relative of the duck-billed dinosaurs.1

The name Gongpoquansaurus comes from the Gongpoquan Basin where its bones were dug up.1

AI-made picture of Gongpoquansaurus — An AI-made picture of how Gongpoquansaurus 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.

you asked

Most asked questions about Gongpoquansaurus

?How big was Gongpoquansaurus?

Scientists do not know its exact size because only a partial skull and skeleton have been found. It was a medium-sized hadrosauroid, but no precise length or weight is given in the sources.1

?What did Gongpoquansaurus eat?

It was a plant-eater. It had a beak for cropping plants and teeth for chewing them, like other hadrosauroids.1

?When did Gongpoquansaurus live?

It lived during the Early Cretaceous, about 113 to 110 million years ago (Albian stage).1

Ask Rex about Gongpoquansaurus

Rex only answers questions about this page. 10 questions a month.

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: Gongpoquansaurus
Named by: You et al. 20144
Group: Beaked plant-eaters
Family / clade: Hadrosauroidea4
Classification: Ornithischia > Ornithopoda > Iguanodontia4
Age of the rocks: 113 to 110 million years (Albian)4
Rock formations: Zhonggou4
Countries: China4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: The first fossils of Gongpoquansaurus were collected in 1992 during the Sino-Japanese Silk Road Dinosaur Expedition. Chinese paleontologist Lü Junchang named it Probactrosaurus mazongshanensis in 1997, and then You Hailu and colleagues gave it the new name Gongpoquansaurus in 2014.1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating exactly how Gongpoquansaurus is related to other hadrosauroids, and whether it is closer to or farther from the true duck-billed dinosaurs than Probactrosaurus.1

Where the facts come from

Gongpoquansaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
INTRODUCING THE MAZONGSHAN DINOSAUR FAUNA (ivpp.cas.cn)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Gongpoquansaurus 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