''Sanpasaurus'' ("Sanpa lizard") is a poorly known

sauropod Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their bo ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

from the

Early Early may refer to: History * The beginning or oldest part of a defined historical period, as opposed to middle or late periods, e.g.: ** Early Christianity ** Early modern Europe Places in the United States * Early, Iowa * Early, Texas * Early ...

Late Jurassic The Late Jurassic is the third epoch of the Jurassic Period, and it spans the geologic time from 163.5 ± 1.0 to 145.0 ± 0.8 million years ago (Ma), which is preserved in Upper Jurassic strata.Owen 1987. In European lithostratigraphy, the name ...

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

, ''S. yaoi'', was described by Chung Chien Young, in 1944. The type remains, IVPP V.156, consists of 20

vertebra The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...

scapula The scapula (plural scapulae or scapulas), also known as the shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus (upper arm bone) with the clavicle (collar bone). Like their connected bones, the scapulae are paired, with each scapula on eithe ...

e, forelimbs, and some hindlimb bones.C.-C. Young. 1944. On the reptilian remains from Weiyuan, Szechuan, China. ''Bulletin of the Geological Society of China'' 24(3–4):187-205. Initially reported by Young as an

ornithopod Ornithopoda () is a clade of ornithischian dinosaurs, called ornithopods (), that started out as small, bipedal running grazers and grew in size and numbers until they became one of the most successful groups of herbivores in the Cretaceous world ...

ornithischian Ornithischia () is an extinct order of mainly herbivorous dinosaurs characterized by a pelvic structure superficially similar to that of birds. The name ''Ornithischia'', or "bird-hipped", reflects this similarity and is derived from the Greek s ...

, this specimen was unambiguously referred to

Sauropoda Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their bo ...

A mention buried at the bottom
of a long discussion of Asian sauropods, on the Dinosaur Mailing List.Upchurch, P. 1995. The evolutionary history of sauropod dinosaurs. ''Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B'', 349:365-390. in 2016 by McPhee ''et al.'',McPhee BW, Upchurch P, Mannion PD, Sullivan C, Butler RJ, Barrett PM. (2016) A revision of ''Sanpasaurus yaoi'' Young, 1944 from the Early Jurassic of China, and its relevance to the early evolution of Sauropoda (Dinosauria) PeerJ 4:e2578 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2578 later refined to a basal

gravisauria Gravisauria is a clade of sauropod dinosaurs consisting of some genera, Vulcanodontidae and Eusauropoda.Allain, R. and Aquesbi, N. (2008). "Anatomy and phylogenetic relationships of ''Tazoudasaurus naimi'' (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the late Ea ...

n position by Pol ''et al.'' in 2020 and 2022, closely related to ''

Vulcanodon ''Vulcanodon'' (meaning "volcano tooth") is an extinct genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of southern Africa. The only known species is ''V. karibaensis''. Discovered in 1969 in Zimbabwe, it was regarded as the earliest-known sau ...

'' and ''

Tazoudasaurus ''Tazoudasaurus'' is a genus of vulcanodontid sauropod dinosaurs hailing from the Early Jurassic, located in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco in North Africa. Along with ''Ohmdenosaurus'' is one of the two formally described sauropods from th ...

''. ''Sanpasaurus'' is known from remains recovered from the Maanshan Member of the

Ziliujing Formation The Ziliujing Formation is a geological formation in China, It is Early Jurassic in age. It is part of the stratigraphy of the Sichuan Basin. The dinosaur ''Gongxianosaurus'' and indeterminate theropod material are known from the Dongyuemiao Mem ...

References

Early Jurassic dinosaurs of Asia Sauropods Taxa named by Yang Zhongjian Fossil taxa described in 1944 Paleontology in Sichuan {{Sauropodomorph-stub