恐龍卡第 0816 張，共 2 027 張

Honghesaurus

名字的意思： “Honghe lizard, named after the Honghe Prefecture in China where it was found”1

吃：肉海生爬蟲類三疊紀中期嚴格來說不是恐龍

Honghesaurus was a small, lizard-like marine reptile that swam in the warm Tethys Ocean about 244 million years ago. It had an incredibly long tail, longer than any other pachypleurosaur, which helped it wiggle through the water like a fish.1

趣味小知識：這種海生爬蟲類在海裡游泳的時候，恐龍正在陸地上走路。大家都叫牠們恐龍，但牠們其實是爬蟲類的另一個分支。

生存年代

244 到 243 百萬年前2

三疊紀中期

化石發現地

Luxi, Honghe, Yunnan, China1 2

長度

0.471 m (1.5 ft)1

最高速度

時速約 4 公里（2 英里）

游泳, 估計值

牠生活在什麼時候？

三疊紀

侏羅紀

白堊紀

2 億 5200 萬年前20114566，小行星撞地球

牠有多大？

牠有多長？

跟 2.5 根香蕉頭尾相接一樣長跟 15 塊積木排成一排一樣長能在 45 秒內游完一座大泳池（50 公尺）

Honghesaurus 跟「你」比起來有多大？

只是在你的瀏覽器裡算算數學。什麼都不會被儲存或傳送出去。

牠有多快？

Honghesaurus 時速約 4 公里 (2 mph)

走路的人 時速約 5 公里 (3 mph)

騎腳踏車的小朋友 時速約 12 公里 (7 mph)

一匹飛奔的馬 時速約 65 公里 (40 mph)

一隻獵豹 時速約 100 公里 (62 mph)

酷東西

趣味知識

Honghesaurus had 121 vertebrae in total, including 69 in its tail, making it the longest-tailed pachypleurosaur known.1

Its long trunk and tail gave it an advantage in maneuverability and energy efficiency for swimming with side-to-side movements.1

It had a unique feature: two fossae (small pits) in its retroarticular process, a part of the jaw, which is not seen in any other pachypleurosaur.1

Its tail was mostly laterally compressed because it had only five pairs of caudal ribs, helping it move through water efficiently.1

Honghesaurus had 29 dorsal (back) vertebrae, more than most other pachypleurosaurs, which usually have 25 or fewer.1

It lived in a semi-enclosed sea called the Yangtze Sea, part of the eastern Palaeotethys Ocean, during the Middle Triassic.1

Honghesaurus 的 AI 繪圖 — 這是電腦根據科學家目前的知識，用 AI 畫出 Honghesaurus 可能的樣子。這只是猜測：真正的動物可能長得不一樣，也沒有人知道牠真正的顏色。

給恐龍專家

學名: Honghesaurus
命名者: Xu et al. 20222
類群: 海生爬蟲類
科 / 演化支: Pachypleurosauridae2
分類: Sauropterygia2
岩石的年代: 244 到 243 百萬年 ()2
岩層: Guanling2
國家: 中國2
化石紀錄: The Paleobiology Database 收錄 1 筆2
發現: The fossil was collected in 2021 during autumn fieldwork led by the first author, from the Guanling Formation in Luxi, Yunnan, China. It was named by Xu and colleagues in 2022.1 2
仍有爭議: Scientists are still debating how Honghesaurus and other pachypleurosaurs are related to each other, and whether they all came from Europe or spread from the east.1