Sanchiaosaurus

Say it: san-chee-oh-SORE-us

Name means: “Sanchiao lizard”1

Ate: FishOther sea reptilesMiddle TriassicNot technically a dinosaur

Sanchiaosaurus was a marine reptile that swam in the warm seas of what is now China about 245 million years ago. It was a nothosaur, a type of long-bodied reptile that paddled through the water with its flippers. Scientists only know it from one partial skeleton found near Guiyang City.1 2

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 ago2

Middle Triassic

Fossils found in

near the Jinzhong Bridge, Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, China1

Food

Fish1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Sanchiaosaurus is known from just one skeleton, which is preserved with its belly facing up, so scientists see it from below.1

The name Sanchiaosaurus comes from Sanchiao, the place where it was found, and the Greek word 'sauros' meaning lizard.1

This reptile lived during the Anisian stage of the Middle Triassic, about 245 million years ago.1

The only known fossil of Sanchiaosaurus is kept at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in China.1

Sanchiaosaurus was a nothosaur, a group of marine reptiles that were not dinosaurs but lived in the sea.1

The skeleton includes the skull, lower jaw, one loose tooth, and parts of the body after the skull.1

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

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Sanchiaosaurus
Named by: Young 19652
Group: Other sea reptiles
Family / clade: Nothosauroidea2
Classification: Sauropterygia2
Age of the rocks: 247 to 241 million years ()2
Countries: China2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Sanchiaosaurus was named by Chinese paleontologist Yang Zhongjian (also known as Chung-Chien Young) in 1965. The type species is Sanchiaosaurus dengi.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Sanchiaosaurus was because only a partial skeleton has been found.1

Where the facts come from

Sanchiaosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Sanchiaosaurus 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.

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