Datousaurus

Datousaurus is a sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Lower Shaximiao Formation in Sichuan province, China. It shared the local Middle Jurassic landscape with other sauropods such as Shunosaurus, Omeisaurus, and Protognathosaurus, the neornithischian Xiaosaurus, and the early stegosaur Huayangosaurus as well as the carnivorous Gasosaurus.

Datousaurus

Finblanco · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
EusauropodaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Sauropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Sauropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Sauropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Sauropoda
Length
15 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 20 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 174.7 Mya and 154.8 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Jurassic — about 0 of 2 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic — about 2 of 2 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 0 of 2 occurrencesLate Jurassic175–175 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences175–174 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences174–173 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences173–172 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences172–172 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences172–171 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences171–170 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences170–170 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences170–169 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences169–168 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences168–168 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences168–167 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences167–166 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences166–165 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences165–165 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences165–164 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences164–163 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences163–163 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences163–162 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences162–161 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences161–161 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences161–160 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences160–159 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences159–158 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences158–158 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences158–157 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences157–156 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences156–156 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences156–155 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences175.2 Mya154.3 Mya

2 occurrences of Datousaurus on record, most of them in the Middle Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

2 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Shaximiao — 29.41°N, 104.85°EShaximiao — 29.61°N, 104.19°E

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The named rock units Datousaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Datousaurus and its relatives

Middle Jurassic

Where Datousaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

41 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Datousaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 2 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Datousaurus

Credit
Finblanco
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itEusauropoda through timeFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Dong and Tang 1984