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Yangchuanosaurus

Say it: yang-chwan-oh-SORE-us
Name means: “Lizard from Yang-ch'uan”1
Ate: MeatMeat-eating dinosMiddle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous

Yangchuanosaurus was a huge meat-eating dinosaur that lived in China during the Jurassic period. It was one of the top predators of its time, with sharp teeth and strong legs for chasing prey.1

Lived
171 to 113 million years ago7
Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous
Fossils found in
Yangchuanosaurus fossils have been found in Sichuan Province, China, particularly in the Shangshaximiao Formation.17
Food
Meat17
Length
8 m12
Weight
1.44 tonnes1
Height
2.19 to 2.85 m3
hip height for CV00215, total height for CV00216

When did it live?

Triassic
Jurassic
Cretaceous
252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

Yangchuanosaurus about 8 m longA bicycle about 1.8 mA car about 4.5 mAn elephant, the biggest land animal today about 6.5 mA house about 10 m

How tall was it?

A dogabout 0.6 m🚪A doorabout 2 mYangchuanosaurusabout 2.85 m tallA house with 2 floorsabout 7 m

hip height for CV00215, total height for CV00216

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 48 big dogs
as long as 8 dogs nose to tailas long as 44 bananas end to endas heavy as 290 watermelonsabout as tall as a door

How big was Yangchuanosaurus compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

Yangchuanosaurus had six large holes in its skull that helped make the skull lighter, so it could move its head more easily.1

2

Its eyes faced forward, which gave it good depth perception to judge distances when hunting.1

3

It had a long tail that helped it balance its body when running.1

4

The first skeleton was found by workers digging foundations for the Shangyou Reservoir Dam in 1977.21

5

In 1981, fossils of Yangchuanosaurus shangyouensis were nearly lost in a flood when the Chongqing Museum of Natural History laboratory was partially submerged, but the fossils were saved.1

6

Yangchuanosaurus lived about 168 to 157 million years ago, during the Jurassic period.1

AI-madeAI-made picture of Yangchuanosaurus
An AI-made picture of how Yangchuanosaurus 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 Yangchuanosaurus

?How big was Yangchuanosaurus?

About 8 to 11 metres long and weighed up to 3.4 metric tons.4156

?Was Yangchuanosaurus bigger than T. rex?

No, Yangchuanosaurus was smaller and lighter than T. rex, with longer arms.1

?What did Yangchuanosaurus eat?

It was a meat-eater that likely hunted large dinosaurs like Mamenchisaurus and may have also scavenged.16

?When did Yangchuanosaurus live?

It lived during the Jurassic period, about 168 to 145 million years ago.156

?Who discovered Yangchuanosaurus?

It was named by Chinese palaeontologist Dong Zhiming in 1978, discovered during construction of the Shangyou Reservoir Dam in 1977.46

?Why did Yangchuanosaurus have a long tail?

Its long tail helped balance its body when it ran after prey.16

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Myth buster

Myth: Some people think Yangchuanosaurus was a type of tyrannosaur.

Truth: Yangchuanosaurus was actually an allosaur, not a tyrannosaur. It belonged to a different group of large meat-eating dinosaurs.1

For dino experts

Scientific name
Yangchuanosaurus
Named by
Dong et al. 19787
Group
Meat-eating dinos
Family / clade
Metriacanthosauridae7
Classification
Theropoda > Allosauroidea7
Age of the rocks
171 to 113 million years (Bajocian / Aptian)7
Rock formations
Shaximiao, Suining7
Countries
China7
Fossil records
4 in the Paleobiology Database7
Discovery
Yangchuanosaurus was discovered in 1977 by workers building the Shangyou Reservoir Dam in Sichuan, China. It was named by Dong Zhiming and colleagues in 1978.27
Still debated
Scientists debate the exact age of the rocks where Yangchuanosaurus was found, so the precise timing of when it lived is still uncertain.2

Where the facts come from

  1. Dinosaurs - Yangchuanosaurus shangyouensis - The Australian Museum (australian.museum)
  2. A new carnosaur from Yongchuan County, Sichuan Province (naturalhistory.si.edu)
  3. Yangchuanosaurus shangyouensis – The Sauropodomorph's Lair (thesauropodomorphlair.wordpress.com)
  4. Yangchuanosaurus (Wikipedia) (Wikipedia)
  5. Yangchuanosaurus | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk)
  6. enchantedlearning.com (enchantedlearning.com)
  7. Yangchuanosaurus 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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