Bellusaurus

Bellusaurus is a small sauropod known from the Late Jurassic Shishugou Formation in Xinjiang, China. Discovered in 1987, seventeen individuals were found huddled together in a single quarry, likely drowned together during a catastrophic flash flood. All recovered specimens were juveniles measuring roughly five metres long, leaving the true adult size of the species uncertain. Bellusaurus possessed relatively short necks and lightly built limbs compared to larger cousins like Mamenchisaurus. It fed on low to mid-level foliage with spoon-shaped teeth adapted for clipping vegetation. Palaeontologists initially grouped it with the mamenchisaurids, but subsequent phylogenetic analyses suggest it may represent an early macronarian sauropod.

A bonebed containing seventeen juvenile skeletons suggests they died together in a flash flood.

Where and when

Bellusaurus lived in the Middle Jurassic, from 163.5 to 157.3 million years ago (Oxfordian age). Its remains come from China, in the Shishugou Formation.

The numbers

Length 4.8 m (estimates run from 4.5 to 5 m). Mass about 630 kg. Hip height about 1.2 m. That is 2.8 human-lengths, or 0.43 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from near-complete skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.

Compare Bellusaurus with a bus Place on the timeline