Pronunciation: Nur-o-SOR-us
Meaning: Lake lizard
Author/s: Dong (informal) (1992)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Inner Mongolia, China
Discovery Chart Position: #
"Nurosaurus qaganensis"
"Nurosaurus" was coined in 1992 and attached to a sauropod that spent over two decades on the travelling sideshow circuit being variously listed under "Nurosaurus", "Nuoersaurus" or "Nuoerosaurus" and with an epithet of "qaganensis" or "chaganensis".
Funnily enough, all of those spellings have been used by Chinese palaeontologist Zhiming Dong, who discovered its remains. However, none of them have been formally used so the critter hasn't been officially named, and Dong seems content to refer to it as "an unusual sauropod" and leave it at that, which is a shame and suspicious in equal measure.
At some 25 meters in length, "Nurosaurus" is one of the largest known Chinese sauropods—even out lengthing most mamenchisaurines who have five more neck vertebrae—and its estimated weight is around a ton per meter. Despite an Asian provenence, "Nurosaurus" appears to be most closely related to North America's Camarasaurus which is as common as muck in the vast Morrison Formation. But that opinion is based merely on it having a similar body shape, split spines on its back vertebrae, and a deep, robust skull (which may well be 50% plaster), because "Nurosaurus" hasn't been officially described either.
By strange coincidence, Bruce Rothschild and Ralph Molnar found a stress fracture in a hind foot of "Nurosaurus" in 2005 that was also present in the same foot of a Camarasaurus specimen.
At some 25 meters in length, "Nurosaurus" is one of the largest known Chinese sauropods—even out lengthing most mamenchisaurines who have five more neck vertebrae—and its estimated weight is around a ton per meter. Despite an Asian provenence, "Nurosaurus" appears to be most closely related to North America's Camarasaurus which is as common as muck in the vast Morrison Formation. But that opinion is based merely on it having a similar body shape, split spines on its back vertebrae, and a deep, robust skull (which may well be 50% plaster), because "Nurosaurus" hasn't been officially described either.
By strange coincidence, Bruce Rothschild and Ralph Molnar found a stress fracture in a hind foot of "Nurosaurus" in 2005 that was also present in the same foot of a Camarasaurus specimen.
Etymology
We suspect both the "Nur" of "Nurosaurus" and the species epithet qaganensis (from Qagan in Latin) refer to Qagan Nur (White Lake in Mongolian): the largest inland salt lake in Jilin Province and one of the ten largest lakes in China, that lent its name to the Qagannur (aka Chagannur) Formation. The "chagan" of the alternate species epithet, chaganensis, is merely a spelling variant of Qagan, and has nothing to do with the other Chagan: a Soviet underground nuclear test conducted at the Semipalatinsk Test Site on January 15, 1965. Until an official description arrives nothing is set in stone. What we do know, however, is that "saurus" is definately derived from the Greek "sauros" (lizard).
Discovery
The remains of "Nurosaurus" were discovered in the Qagannur Formation, southeast of Erenhot, Inner Mongolia, China.
A holotype has yet to be chosen.
