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Yuanmousaurus

Say it: yoo-an-mow-SORE-us

Name means: “Yuanmou lizard”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksMiddle Jurassic

Yuanmousaurus was a giant, long-necked plant-eater that lived in China during the Middle Jurassic. It may have been as long as a school bus and used its long neck to reach leaves high in the trees.1

Lived

175 to 162 million years ago2

Middle Jurassic

Fossils found in

Yuanmou County, Yunnan Province, China1

Food

Plants2 1

Length

up to 17 m1

estimate

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 cars parked in a rowas long as 94 bananas end to end

How big was Yuanmousaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Yuanmousaurus is known from only one incomplete skeleton, found in 2000 near the village of Jiangyi.1

Its neck bones were long and stretched out, similar to those of its relative Mamenchisaurus, which had one of the longest necks of any dinosaur.1

The forelimbs of Yuanmousaurus were longer than those of the sauropod Shunosaurus, but shorter than those of Omeisaurus.1

Scientists are not sure exactly where Yuanmousaurus belongs on the dinosaur family tree, and some think it may be a close relative of Patagosaurus from South America.1

The only known fossils include parts of the back, tail, hips, arms, legs, and a single claw from the hind foot.1

Yuanmousaurus lived about 174 to 161 million years ago, during the Middle Jurassic period.2

AI-made picture of Yuanmousaurus — An AI-made picture of how Yuanmousaurus 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: Yuanmousaurus
Named by: Lü et al. 20062
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Mamenchisauridae2
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda2
Age of the rocks: 175 to 162 million years (Aalenian / Callovian)2
Rock formations: Zhanghe2
Countries: China2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Yuanmousaurus was named in 2006 by Lü Junchang and colleagues, based on a skeleton found in May 2000 in Yuanmou County, Yunnan, China. The fossils are kept at the Yuanmou Museum.1
Still debated: Scientists debate whether Yuanmousaurus is a valid genus or if its fossils belong to another known sauropod.1

Where the facts come from

Yuanmousaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Yuanmousaurus 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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