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"The Sauropod looked like a Datousaurus, a fifty-foot long Middle Jurassic herbivore whose fossils were found in the the Dashanpu Quarry of central China. But...
How could a dinosaur that large make it into this clearing- unless there was another way in that he [Alan Grant] hadn't spotted?"
Jurassic Park III by Scott Ciencin(src)


Datousaurus (meaning "chieftain lizard" or "big-head lizard"; originally named using the Malay "datu", after its Chinese nickname "qiulong"- literally "chieftain dragon" - but also a pun on its big head; "da tou" means "big head" in Chinese) was a sauropod from the Middle Jurassic period. It is part of the same family as Mamenchisaurus and related to Shunosaurus. Datousaurus lived in the lower Shaximiao Formation in Dashanpu, Zigong Sichuan province in China. Datousaurus was discovered by Dong Zhiming and Tang in 1984 where only two partial specimens were discovered. Both Datousaurus and Shunosaurus were similar in anatomical ways. Datousaurus' teeth were well developed for grazing in different sized trees, as well as raised vertebrae; highly developed for the latter reason.


Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia has a more detailed and comprehensive article on Datousaurus





Jurassic Park franchise

Datousaurus was featured in the Jurassic Park Institute available to browse on Dinopedia.[1]

Novels

Jurassic Park III (novelization)

Datousaurus appears in the novelization of Jurassic Park III, as a carcass the Tyrannosaurus rex bull is eating, replacing the Parasaurolophus.

Trivia

References

  1. "Dinopedia: Datousaurus". Jurassic Park Institute. Archived from the original on October 6, 2003.

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