Yangchuanosaurus
genus of reptiles (fossil)
Yangchuanosaurus is an extinct genus of metriacanthosaurid theropod dinosaur that lived in China from the Middle Jurassic to Late Jurassic periods (Bathonian to Tithonian stages), and was similar (although slightly larger) in size and appearance to its North American and European relative, Allosaurus. Yangchuanosaurus hails from the Upper Shaximiao Formation and was the largest predator in a landscape that included the sauropods Mamenchisaurus and Omeisaurus, and the stegosaurs Chialingosaurus, Tuojiangosaurus, and Chungkingosaurus. This theropod was named after the area in which was discovered, Yongchuan, in China.
Discovery and species
Dong et al. (1978) named Yangchuanosaurus shangyouensis on the basis of Municipal Museum of Chongqing 00215, a complete skull and skeleton which was collected from the Shangshaximiao Formation, near Yongchuan, Yongchuan District, Sichuan. It dates to the Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic period, about 161.2 to 157.3 million years ago. It was discovered in June 1977 by a construction worker during the construction of the Shangyou Reservoir Dam. A second species from the same locality, Y. magnus, was named by Dong et al. (1983) on the basis of CV 00216, another complete skull and skeleton. A detailed revision of tetanuran phylogeny by Carrano, Benson & Sampson (2012) revealed that both species are conspecific.
The public source identifies “Yangchuanosaurus” as genus of reptiles (fossil). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Yangchuanosaurus, genus and reptiles.
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Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 22, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q131131. The first chronological checks are 1978, 1977, 1983 and 2012.
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This entry incorporates text from “Yangchuanosaurus” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.