Pronunciation: GUNG-boo-SOR-us
Meaning: Gongbu lizard
Author/s: Dong, Zhou and Zhang (1983)
Synonyms: Eugongbusaurus? (Knoll, 1999)
First Discovery: Sichuan, China
Discovery Chart Position: #301
Gongbusaurus shiyii
(Shri Yi Gong Bu Lizard)Etymology
Gongbusaurus is derived from the Chinese "gong" (work) and "bu" (ministry), and the Greek "sauros" (lizard), named for the "Gong Bu", a popular term for the government Ministry of Public Works in feudal China. The species epithet, shiyii (shuhr-YI-ie) is named for the great Chinese Tang Dynasty poet Du Fu (712-770 A.D.), a one-time official of the Gong Bu whose title was "Shi yi", which is a kind of junior consultant with the responsibility to counsel the emperor upon potential error. However, the characters Shi yi can also be translated as "Record of Heretofore Lost Works" in modern Chinese. Since the idea of objects being lost and found again to rectify the error is similar to finding lost creatures in the form of fossils, the name alludes by pun to the famous poet's professional position and to fossil hunting.
Discovery
The first remains of Gongbusaurus were discovered in the Upper Shaximiao (Shangshaximiao) Formation behind an elementary school in the village of Huangtong, part of the Duxin commune, in Rongxian (Rong County), Sichuan, China.
The holotype (IVPP V9069 1/2) is two teeth.
Gongbusaurus wucaiwanensis
Based on a holotype consisting of a partial lower jaw, 3 tail vertebrae, and a partial arm (IVPP 8302), a paratype
consisting of two hip vertebrae, eight tail vertebrae, a partial pelvis and two legs (IVPP 8303), and a referred partial foot, four back vertebrae and a tail vertebra (IVPP 8304) from three sites in the Shishugou Formation of Wucaiwan, Dong named a second species of Gongbusaurus—Gongbusaurus wucaiwanensis—in 1989. Given the problems that arise from dinosaurs that are based solely upon teeth, specifically the lack of sufficiently distinctive features to carry the name and allow other specimens or species to be assigned to them, it comes as no surprise that some palaeontologists have suggested seperating Gongbusaurus wucaiwanensis from the teeth of Gongbusaurus and naming it something else. A replacement name—"Eugongbusaurus"— managed to worm its way into the public domain but it remains informal.
