Mamenchisauridae
| Mamenchisauridae Temporal range: Early-Late Jurassic,
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|---|---|
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| Mamenchisaurus | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Clade: | †Eusauropoda |
| Family: | †Mamenchisauridae Young and Zhao, 1972 |
| Genera | |
| Synonyms | |
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Omeisauridae Wilson, 2002 | |
Mamenchisauridae is a family of sauropod dinosaurs. The family was first named by Chinese paleontologists C.C. Young and X. Zhao in 1972, in a paper describing Mamenchisaurus.[2] Other mamenchisaurids may include Chuanjiesaurus, Datousaurus, Eomamenchisaurus, Huangshanlong, Hudiesaurus, Qijianglong, Tienshanosaurus, Omeisaurus, and Tonganosaurus, Xinjiangtitan, Yuanmousaurus, Zigongosaurus . Fossils of Mamenchisaurus and Omeisaurus have been found in the Shangshaximiao Formation, dating to the Oxfordian stage, around 161.2-157.3 Ma (million years ago). Chuanjiesaurus fossils date between 175.6-161.2 Ma, while those of Eomamenchisaurus were found in the Zhanghe Formation, believed to be around 175.6-161.2 million years old.[3] Fossils of Tonganosaurus date to even earlier, from the (Pliensbachian) Early Jurassic.[4]
Long-bone histology enables researchers to estimate the age that a specific individual reached. A study by Griebeler et al. (2013) examined long bone histological data and concluded that the unnamed mamenchisaurid SGP 2006/9 weighed 25,075 kilograms (27.6 short tons), reached sexual maturity at 20 years and died at age 31.[5]
References
- ^ Jian-Dong Huang; Hai-Lu You; Jing-Tao Yang; Xin-Xin Ren (2014). "A new sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Huangshan, Anhui Province" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 52 (4): 390–400.
- ^ Young, C.C. and Zhao, X. (1972). "Mamenchisaurus hochuanensis sp. nov.". Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology Monographs Series A 8: 1-30.
- ^ Lü, J., Li, T., Zhong, S., Ji, Q., and Li, S. (2008). "A new mamenchisaurid dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Yuanmou, Yunnan Province, China". Acta Geologica Sinica 82(1) :17-26.
- ^ Li, K., Yang, C.-Y., Liu, J. and Wang, Z.-X. (2010). "A new sauropod dinosaur from the Lower Jyrassic of Huili, Sichuan, China." Vertebrata PalAsiatica, (3).
- ^ Griebeler EM, Klein N, Sander PM (2013) Aging, Maturation and Growth of Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs as Deduced from Growth Curves Using Long Bone Histological Data: An Assessment of Methodological Constraints and Solutions. PLoS ONE 8(6): e67012. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0067012
Sources
- Currie, Philip J.; Kevin Padian. Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs. p. 122.
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