Sanxiasaurus

Name means: “Sanxia lizard, after the Three Gorges (Sanxia) of the Yangtze River”1

Ate: PlantsBeaked plant-eatersEarly Jurassic to Middle Jurassic

Sanxiasaurus was a small, plant-eating dinosaur that lived in what is now China about 170 million years ago. It is the oldest neornithischian dinosaur ever found in Asia. This little dinosaur probably ran on its two hind legs and used its beak to nibble on plants.1 3

Lived

184 to 171 million years ago3

Early Jurassic to Middle Jurassic

Fossils found in

Laojun Village, Yunyang County, Chongqing Municipality, China1 3

Food

Plants3

Length

1.7 m2

largest known specimen

Weight

12 kg2

largest known specimen

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 3 house cats

as long as 3 house cats nose to tailas long as 9 bananas end to endas heavy as 100 bananas

How big was Sanxiasaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Sanxiasaurus is the oldest neornithischian dinosaur known from Asia, living about 170 million years ago.1

Its fossils were discovered in 2016 by a field team from the Chongqing Bureau of Geological and Mineral Resource Exploration and Development.1

The only known skeleton includes 55 bones, such as vertebrae, arm bones, leg bones, and parts of the feet.1 3

Scientists think Sanxiasaurus was a ground-dwelling herbivore that walked on two legs.3

Sanxiasaurus was named after the Three Gorges (Sanxia) of the Yangtze River, where it was found.1

It was a basal neornithischian, meaning it was an early relative of later plant-eating dinosaurs like Iguanodon.1

AI-made picture of Sanxiasaurus — An AI-made picture of how Sanxiasaurus 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: Sanxiasaurus
Named by: Hu Dai et al. 20193
Group: Beaked plant-eaters
Family / clade: Neornithischia3
Classification: Ornithischia3
Age of the rocks: 184 to 171 million years (Toarcian / Aalenian)3
Rock formations: Xintiangou3
Countries: China3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Sanxiasaurus was named and described in 2019 by Chinese paleontologist Ning Li and colleagues. The fossils were found in 2016 in the Xintiangou Formation of Yunyang County, Chongqing, China.1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating exactly how Sanxiasaurus is related to other early neornithischians, such as Agilisaurus and Hexinlusaurus.1

Where the facts come from

Sanxiasaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Sanxiasaurus modaoxiensis | Dinosaur Database by DinoAnimals.com (dinoanimals.com)
Sanxiasaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

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