Dino card No. 1689 of 2,027

Sonidosaurus

Say it: SON-id-oh-SORE-us

Name means: “Sonid lizard, after the Sonid region in Inner Mongolia”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksLate Cretaceous

Sonidosaurus was a small, long-necked sauropod that munched on plants in what is now Inner Mongolia, China. It lived about 83 to 72 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous. This dinosaur was only about 9 meters long, which is small for a sauropod!1 2

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago5

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Saihangaobi, Sonid Zuoqi, Nei Mongol (Inner Mongolia), China3 1

Food

Plants2

Length

9 m3 1

estimated total body length

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 2 cars parked in a rowas long as 50 bananas end to end

How big was Sonidosaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Sonidosaurus is the only sauropod known from the Iren Dabasu Fauna, a group of dinosaurs that lived in the same area.1

Its fossils were found in the same quarry that later yielded the giant bird-like dinosaur Gigantoraptor.1

The hip bone (ilium) of Sonidosaurus had air spaces inside, a feature not common among non-avian dinosaurs.3

Scientists think Sonidosaurus was a mature adult when it died because the bones in its spine were fully fused.3

Sonidosaurus had a mix of old and new features, which makes it tricky for scientists to figure out exactly where it fits on the dinosaur family tree.1

It lived during the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous, about 83 to 72 million years ago.2

AI-made picture of Sonidosaurus — An AI-made picture of how Sonidosaurus 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 Sonidosaurus

?How big was Sonidosaurus?

About 9 meters (30 feet) long. That is small for a sauropod.1 4

?What did Sonidosaurus eat?

It was a herbivore, meaning it ate plants.4

?When did Sonidosaurus live?

It lived during the Late Cretaceous, about 89 to 66 million years ago.4

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Sonidosaurus
Named by: Xu et al. 20065
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Somphospondyli5
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda > Macronaria5
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)5
Rock formations: Iren Dabasu5
Countries: China5
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database5
Discovery: Sonidosaurus was named in 2006 by Xu Xing and colleagues. The fossils were found in 2001 in Saihangaobi, Inner Mongolia, China.3 1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether Sonidosaurus was a lithostrotian titanosaur or a more primitive somphospondylian.1 2

Where the facts come from

Sonidosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
A New Titanosaurian Sauropod from Late Cretaceous of Nei Mongol, China (ivpp.cas.cn)
Sonidosaurus | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)
Sonidosaurus 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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