Skip to content
Gasosaurus
EntityQ131771· pop 28· linked from 345 articles

Gasosaurus

Sign in to save

Gasosaurus () is a genus of tetanuran theropod that lived approximately 171.6 to 161.2 million years ago during the middle of the Jurassic Period. The name "Gasosaurus" is derived from the English "gasoline" and the Greek () ("lizard / generic reptile"). Only one species is currently recognised, G. constructus, from which the specific name honours the gasoline company that found the Dashanpu fossil quarry in Sichuan Province, China, now named as the Lower Shaximiao Formation.

Wikidata facts

Parent taxon
Megalosauridae
Image
Gasosaurus constructus.png
Length
4.0
Show 8 more facts
taxon rank
genus
Commons category
Gasosaurus
taxon name
Gasosaurus
start time
171600000-
end time
161200000-
time period
Middle Jurassic
location of discovery
China
main food source
carnivore
Sources (2)

via Wikidata · CC0

~5 min read

Encyclopedic overview

6 sections
Contents
  • Discovery and naming
  • Description
  • Classification
  • Paleoecology
  • References
  • External links

Gasosaurus () is a genus of tetanuran theropod that lived approximately 171.6 to 161.2 million years ago during the middle of the Jurassic Period. The name "Gasosaurus" is derived from the English "gasoline" and the Greek () ("lizard / generic reptile"). Only one species is currently recognised, G. constructus, from which the specific name honours the gasoline company that found the Dashanpu fossil quarry in Sichuan Province, China, now named as the Lower Shaximiao Formation.

==Discovery and naming== The first and to date only fossils, albeit postcranial (missing the skull), were recovered in 1985 during the construction of a gas facility, which explains the dinosaur's unusual name. It consists of laterally compressed teeth, 4 cervical, 7 dorsal, 5 sacral, and 7 caudal vertebrae, both humeri, and highly abraded and reconstructed pelvic and hind limb material that includes the left ilium, left ischium, left pubis, left femur, left tibia and left fibula. The fossils were defined as the type species Gasosaurus constructus by the paleontologists Dong Zhiming and Tang Zilu.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Gasosaurus” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (3)