Dino card No. 1088 of 2,015

Lufengosaurus

Say it: loo-FENG-oh-SORE-us

Name means: “Lufeng lizard”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksEarly Jurassic to Middle Jurassic

Lufengosaurus was an early long-necked dinosaur that lived in what is now China. It walked on two legs and used its sharp claws to grab leaves and defend itself.1

Lived

201 to 168 million years ago2

Early Jurassic to Middle Jurassic

Fossils found in

Yunnan Province, China1

Food

Plants1

Length

6 to 9 m1

smaller estimate for L. huenei, larger for L. magnus specimens

Weight

1.7 tonnes to 2.3 tonnes1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

Lufengosaurus was the first complete dinosaur skeleton ever mounted in China, and a postage stamp was made to celebrate it in 1958.1

In 2015, scientists found preserved collagen protein in a Lufengosaurus fossil, which was over 100 million years older than any previously known fossil protein.1

Lufengosaurus had a long neck and short arms, and it probably walked on two legs.1

Its skull was about 25 centimetres (10 inches) long, and it had bony bumps behind its nostrils and on its cheeks.1

Lufengosaurus lived during the Early Jurassic period, about 195 to 190 million years ago.1

Some scientists think Lufengosaurus may have taken care of its babies, because the leg bones of its embryos look like those of birds that need feeding.1

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

For dino experts

Scientific name: Lufengosaurus
Named by: Young 19402
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Massospondylidae2
Classification: Sauropodomorpha2
Age of the rocks: 201 to 168 million years (Hettangian to Bajocian)2
Rock formations: Lufeng, Ziliujing2
Countries: China2
Fossil records: 28 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Lufengosaurus was named by Chinese paleontologist C. C. Young in 1940, based on fossils found near Lufeng in Yunnan, China.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if Lufengosaurus was sometimes omnivorous, because it had sharp teeth and claws like meat-eaters, but also ate plants.1

Where the facts come from

Lufengosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Lufengosaurus 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.