(thing) by junkpile Sat Jul 14 2001 at 5:32:11

The Zizhongosaurus is named for Zizhong County, the area of China where the first fossil remains of this dinosaur were discovered. It was named by Chinese paleontologists Dong Zhiming, Zhou Shiwu, and Zhang, who found its back vertebrae, pubis, and humerus in 1983.

This was a smallish, primitive, early example of a sauropod. It lived in the early Jurassic period, about 180 million years ago. It resembles the Indian Barapasaurus, which lived in India during the same period. The discovery of of Zizhongosaurus bones was the earliest indicator that sauropods were indigenous to this area.

Zizhongosaurus grew to be about 30 feet long, 11 feet high. It weighed about 9700 lbs, or 20 tons, depending on who you believe. Like all sauropods, it had a long neck, long tail, big belly. Walked on four legs, ate only plants.

This dinosaur's classification is Saurischia Sauropodomorpha Sauropoda Vulcanodontidae. Its species is Zizhongosaurus chuanchengensis.


thanks to:
http://www.dinodata.net/Dd/Namelist/Tabz/Z014.htm
http://dinosauricon.com/genera/zizhongosaurus.html
http://www.isgs.uiuc.edu/dinos/de_4/5a6c1a6.htm
http://www.dinodictionary.com/dinos_wz.html

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