Yangchuanosaurus

Artist's impression vonYangchuanosaurus shangyouensis

• China

Yangchuanosaurus was a theropod dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic Chinese ( Oxfordian to Kimmeridgian ). The genus belongs to the Carnosauria.

Features

Yangchuanosaurus similar in shape and size of its North American contemporaries and relatives Allosaurus. He was a large carnivore, which was moving to the powerful hind legs. The hind legs ended in three toes, each wore a claw - the much smaller front legs each had three bekrallte finger on. The long, stiff tail accounted for around half of the total length. The up to one meter long head wore a bony ridge of the nose. In the mouth were more teeth than Allosaurus.

Y. shangyouensis reached a length of 8 m; the skull was 82 cm long. Another way of Y. magnus, was significantly longer than Y. shangyouensis with 10 m, with the skull of Y. magnus with about 1.1 m accounted for one tenth of the total length. The weight is estimated to be 3 to 4 tons. The Antorbitalfenster has the shape of a triangle. The teeth are laterally flattened and bent backwards. The edges were jagged.

Time frame and discovery

Yangchuanosaurus lived during the Late Jurassic ( Oxfordian to Kimmeridgian ).

Its fossils were found in China. The first description of the genus comes from the Chinese researchers Dong, Chang, Li and Zhou, in Yangchuan found an almost complete skeleton of Yangchuanosaurus shangyouensis in the 1970s in the Chinese province of Sichuan.

A possible second kind, Y. magnus, was described by Dong, Zhou and Zhang 1983 - their status is, however, not been established.

External system

Yangchuanosaurus is incorporated with some other carnivorous theropods as Sinraptor into the family of Sinraptoridae. These are closely related to the Allosauridae and placed in the combined group of Allosauroidea.