Creature information | |
Scientific name : | Shunosaurus lii |
Time period : | Mid Jurassic |
Primary diet : | Herbivore |
In the series | |
Fatalities caused : | One Sinraptor |
Appearances : | Survival Tactics |
Shunosaurus was a species of sauropod with a distinct feature: a club on its tail, like that of Ankylosaurus. Shunosaurus appears in episode 3 of Dinosaur Revolution, Survival Tactics. A herd of Shunosaurus is seen foraging for food.
A young male (nicknamed Shroomo by Fans) eats the wrong mushrooms, having a hallucination in the process, and is chased by two Sinraptors (probably some other kind of early carnosaur like Gasosaurus). Shroomo crushes one Sinraptor, while the other vanishes after it is struck in the face by Shroomo's tail club. In the end, the Shunosaurus gets up off the fallen Sinraptor and gets to the herd that ran off earlier from the Sinraptors. His hallucination has ended and he has now learned not to eat the wrong kind of mushrooms. But it seems he is still amazed by his tail club like earlier.
Physical Characteristic[]
Shunosaurus was first estimated to be 11 metres (36 ft) long; later and more complete finds indicated a somewhat smaller size. In 2010 Gregory S. Paul estimated the length at 9.5 metres (31 ft), the weight at 3 metric tons (3.3 short tons). Shunosaurus was very short-necked for a sauropod, being only "surpassed" in this respect by Brachytrachelopan. They show a unique combination of a cylindrical body ending in a spatulate tip. In 1989 it was disclosed that the tail ended in a club, equipped on its top with two successive spikes formed by 5 centimetres (2.0 in)-long cone-shaped osteoderms probably used to fend off enemies.
Discovery[]
The first fossil of Shunosaurus was discovered in 1977 by a group of students, practising paleontological excavation at a road bank. The type species, Shunosaurus lii, was described and named by Dong Zhiming, Zhou Shiwu and Zhang Yihong in 1983. The generic name derives from "Shu", an ancient name for Sichuan. The specific name honours hydrologist Li Bing, the governor of Sichuan in the third century BC.
Paleobiology[]
Its neck length indicates that Shunosaurus was a low browser. The form of its jaws is well-adapted to processing large amounts of coarse plant material. Shunosaurus accounts for 90% of the fossils found in the Dashanpu fauna, showing it was a dominant member of its habitat. It shared the local Middle Jurassic landscape with other sauropods, such as Mammenchisaurus, Euhelopus, Omeisaurus, and Datousaurus and other theropods such as Gasosaurus, Yangchuanosaurus and Monolophosaurus.
Trivia[]
- With over 20 skeletons found from juvenile to adult which are nearly completed to completed, Shunosaurus is one of the best anatomically known sauropods, with 94% of all skeletal elements identified.
- Even though it shown both Sinraptors and Shunosaurus living together, in reality they would never met. They were separate by 10 million years.
- The main character of this species is Shroomo