Dino card No. 1908 of 2,027

Wangosaurus

Say it: WANG-oh-SORE-us

Name means: “Wang's lizard”1

Ate: MeatSea reptilesMiddle TriassicNot technically a dinosaur

Wangosaurus was a long, slim marine reptile that swam in the warm seas of China about 237 million years ago. It was not a dinosaur, but a close cousin of the plesiosaurs, with flippers and a short snout.1

Fun fact: this sea reptile swam while dinosaurs walked on land. Everyone calls them dinos, but they were a different branch of reptiles.

Lived

239 to 237 million years ago3

Middle Triassic

Fossils found in

Falang Formation, Xingyi, Guizhou Province, southwestern China1 2

Food

Meat1

Length

2.2 m1

nearly complete skeleton, missing only the rear part of the tail

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 4 house cats nose to tailas long as 12 bananas end to end

How big was Wangosaurus compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Wangosaurus lived about 237 million years ago, during the Middle Triassic period.1

Its name brevirostris means 'short snout' in Greek, because its snout was shorter than other similar reptiles.1

The only known skeleton is nearly complete and articulated, meaning the bones were still connected when found.1

Wangosaurus is a basal eosauropterygian, which means it was an early member of the group that later included plesiosaurs.1

It was found in the same rocks as other marine reptiles like ichthyosaurs and thalattosaurs.2

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

Ask Rex about Wangosaurus

Rex only answers questions about this page. 3 questions a day.

Rex is an AI and can make mistakes. He runs on servers in the EU and questions are never saved. Never type your name or other personal things.

Myth buster

Myth: Wangosaurus was a dinosaur.

Truth: Wangosaurus was a marine reptile, not a dinosaur. Dinosaurs lived on land and had different body features.1

For dino experts

Scientific name: Wangosaurus
Named by: Ma et al. 20153
Group: Sea reptiles
Family / clade: Pistosauroidea3
Classification: Sauropterygia3
Age of the rocks: 239 to 237 million years (Ladinian)3
Rock formations: Falang3
Countries: China3
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Wangosaurus was first described and named by Le-Tian Ma and colleagues in 2015, based on a nearly complete skeleton found in the Falang Formation in China.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure whether Wangosaurus was a pistosauroid or a nothosaur, because it has features of both groups.1

Where the facts come from

Wangosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
PBDB Collection (paleobiodb.org)
Wangosaurus 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.

Rex is hungry! Dino Wiki is a dad's project for his dino-loving son, free with no ads. Grown-ups can feed Rex a snack to help keep it online.Feed Rex