Nebulasaurus
Nebulasaurus was a long-necked plant-eater that lived in China about 170 million years ago. It is only known from a single well-preserved braincase, so scientists are still learning about its body.12
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Fun facts
Its closest relative is Spinophorosaurus, a sauropod from Africa that lived at about the same time.12
Nebulasaurus represents a group of early sauropods that were not known in Asia before its discovery.12
The name Nebulasaurus comes from the Latin word for misty cloud, because Yunnan means southern cloudy province in Chinese.1
The species name taito honors the Taito Corporation of Japan, which funded the field project where the fossil was found.12
Nebulasaurus lived alongside other sauropodomorphs like Yunnanosaurus and mamenchisaurids in the same formation.2
Its braincase has features that are similar to those of later, more advanced sauropods called neosauropods.2
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Nebulasaurus
- Named by
- Xing et al. 20154
- Group
- Long-necks
- Family / clade
- Eusauropoda4
- Classification
- Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda4
- Age of the rocks
- 175 to 168 million years (Aalenian / Bajocian)4
- Rock formations
- Zhanghe4
- Countries
- China4
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
- Discovery
- Nebulasaurus was named in 2015 by Lida Xing and colleagues based on a braincase found in the Zhanghe Formation of Yunnan, China.14
- Still debated
- Scientists are not sure what the rest of Nebulasaurus looked like, because only its braincase has been found.1
Where the facts come from
- Nebulasaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
- A new basal eusauropod from the Middle Jurassic of Yunnan, China, and faunal compositions and transitions of Asian sauropodomorph dinosaurs (app.pan.pl)
- Nebulasaurus taito | Dinosaur Database by DinoAnimals.com (dinoanimals.com)
- Nebulasaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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