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Zuolong

Say it: zoo-oh-LONG

Name means: “Zuo's dragon, named after General Zuo Zongtang”1

Ate: MeatMeat-eating dinosLate Jurassic

Zuolong was a small, speedy meat-eater that lived in China during the Late Jurassic. It was one of the oldest coelurosaurs, the group that includes T. rex and birds!1 2

Lived

162 to 155 million years ago4

Late Jurassic

Fossils found in

Wucaiwan, Xinjiang, China1 4

Food

Meat4 1

Length

3 to 3.35 m1

adult estimate, holotype may be a juvenile

Weight

16 kg to 50 kg1

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 12 house cats

as long as 3 dogs nose to tailas long as 19 bananas end to endas heavy as 10 watermelons

How big was Zuolong compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Zuolong lived about 161 to 159 million years ago, during the Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic.1

It was discovered in 2001 by a joint Chinese-American expedition, but scientists did not describe it until 2010.1

Zuolong is one of the oldest coelurosaurs ever found that includes both skull and body bones.2

The only known skeleton is probably from a young animal, so adults may have been bigger.1

Zuolong had a D-shaped tooth in its upper jaw, a feature also seen in early tyrannosauroids.1

It lived alongside other dinosaurs like the horned Yinlong, the sauropod Bellusaurus, and the big predator Sinraptor.1

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

?How big was Zuolong?

Zuolong was small for a theropod. Scientists estimate it weighed between 16 and 50 kilograms and was about 3 metres long as an adult.1

?What did Zuolong eat?

Zuolong was a meat-eater, or carnivore. It had sharp, serrated teeth for eating other animals.1 3

?Did Zuolong have feathers?

Scientists think Zuolong likely had feathers because it was a coelurosaur, the group that includes birds and many feathered dinosaurs.3

?When did Zuolong live?

Zuolong lived during the Late Jurassic period, about 161 to 159 million years ago.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Zuolong
Named by: Choiniere et al. 20104
Group: Meat-eating dinos
Family / clade: Coelurosauria4
Classification: Theropoda4
Age of the rocks: 162 to 155 million years (Oxfordian)4
Rock formations: Shishugou4
Countries: China4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Zuolong was named in 2010 by Jonah Choiniere, James Clark, Catherine Forster, and Xu Xing. The species name 'salleei' honors Hilmar Sallee, who funded the expedition that found the fossil.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are not sure how big Zuolong grew as an adult, because the only known fossil may be from a juvenile.1

Where the facts come from

Zuolong (en.wikipedia.org)
A basal coelurosaur (Dinosauria: Theropoda) from the Late Jurassic (Oxfordian) of the Shishugou Formation in Wucaiwan, People's Republic of China: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology: Vol 30 , No 6 - Get Access (tandfonline.com)
Zuolong salleei | DinoData (dino-data.ca)
Zuolong 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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