Bellusaurus

Taxobox
name = Bellusaurus
fossil_range = Middle Jurassic


image_width=250px
image_caption = Skull of a "Bellusaurus sui" on display at the Paleozoological Museum of China.
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Saurischia
subordo = Sauropodomorpha
infraordo = Sauropoda
family = Euhelopodidae
genus = "Bellusaurus"
genus_authority = Chao, 1987

"Bellusaurus" (meaning "Beautiful lizard") was a small short-necked sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic which measured about 4.8 metres long. Its fossils were found in Wucaiwan Formation rocks in the northeastern Junggar Basin in China.

Discovery and species

The type (and only known) species is "Bellusaurus sui", formally described by Chao in 1987. Seventeen individuals were found in a single quarry, suggesting that a herd had been killed in a flash flood. Some features suggest they may have all been juveniles.

"Bellusaurus" species
*"B. sui"

References

*

External links

* [http://www.dinoruss.com/de_4/5a6c1d1.htm "Bellusaurus" in the Dinosaur Encyclopedia]
* [http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/nature-online/dino-directory/detail.dsml?Genus=Bellusaurus "Bellusaurus"] in the Dino Directory