an obscure sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of China.
Pronunciation: JYAH-yoo-SOR-us
Meaning: Chia-yu-kuan lizard
Author/s: Bohlin (
1953)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Gansu, China
Discovery Chart Position: #192
Chiayusaurus lacustris
[Chia-Yu-Kuan Lizard of the Lake]
Etymology
Chiayusaurus is derived from "Chia-yu-kuan" (aka Jiayuguan, the area where it was found) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard). It was originally named Chiay
üsaurus, but the ICZN does not permit special characters, so the diaeresis had to be dropped and replaced with a simple "u".
The
species epithet,
lacustris, means "of the lake" in Latin.
Synonyms
Chiayüsaurus (Bohlin, 1953)
Chiayuesaurus (Bohlin, 1953)
Discovery
The first remains of
Chiayusaurus were discovered in the Xinminbao beds at Dacaotan, Chia-yu-kuan (Jalyuguan), Gansu (Kansu) Province, China. The
holotype is a single tooth.
A juvenile sauropod tooth (ZIN PH 9/13), a chisel-like adult sauropod tooth (ZIN PH 4/13) and two sauropod tail vertebrae (ZIN PH 7/13 and ZIN PH 8/13), discovered
by A. I. Starkov in the Mogoito locality at "Promoina Klevenskogo" on the western coast of Gusinoe Lake, were identified as cf.
Chiayusaurus sp. by Lev Nessov in 1995, when he also mused that osteoderms from the same area, which he and Starkov had previously referred to "Armatosauria" in 1992, might belong to the same "sauropod". However, this Mogoito critter has no specific similarities to
Chiayusaurus lacustris; the juvenile tooth (ZIN PH 9/13) actually belongs to an ornithopod, the other tooth (ZIN PH 4/13) is titanosaurian but indeterminate, and the vertebra (ZIN PH 7/13) was chosen as the holotype of
Tengrisaurus starkovi by Averianov and Skutschas in 2017, with the other vertebra (ZIN PH 8/13) referred to it.
• Bohlin B (1953) "Fossil reptiles from Mongolia and Kansu".
The Sino-Swedish Expedition Publication, 37(6): 1-113.
• Nesov LA (1995) "Dinozavry Severnoi Evrazii: novye dannye o sostave
kompleksov, ekologii i paleobiogeografii [
Dinosaurs of Northern Eurasia: New Data about Assemblages, Ecology and Paleobiogeography]".
156
pp. Izdatelstvo Sankt-Peterburgskogo Universiteta, Saint Petersburg.
• Lee Y-N, Yang S-Y and Park E-J (1997) "Sauropod dinosaur remains from the Gyeongsang Supergroup Korea".
Paleontological Society of Korea, Special Publication, 2: 103-114.
• Barrett PM, Hasegawa Y, Manabe M, Isaji S, Matsuoka H (2002) "Sauropod dinosaurs from the Lower Cretaceous of eastern Asia: taxonomic and biogeographical implications".
Palaeontology, 45(6): 1197-1217. DOI: 10.1111/1475-4983.00282.
• Averianov AO, Starkov AI and Skutschas PP (2003) "
Dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous Murtoi Formation in Buryatia, Eastern Russia".
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 23(3): 590.
• Upchurch PM, Barrett PM and Dodson P (2004) "Sauropoda". Page 259-322 in Weishampel, Dodson and Osmólska (eds.) "
The Dinosauria: First Edition".
• Averianov AO and Skutschas PP (2017) "
A new lithostrotian titanosaur (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the Early Cretaceous of Transbaikalia, Russia".
Biological Communications, 62(1): 6-18.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
CHIAYUSAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/CHIAYUSAURUS›. Web access: 07th Mar 2026.
