Nurosaurus

"Nurosaurus qaganensis" as displayed in the Science Museum, Hong Kong.

"Nurosaurus" (pronounced (U.S.) Nur - o - Saw - rus, meaning "Nur lizard") is the informal name for a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Cretaceous of Inner Mongolia, China. It is known from a partial skeleton that has often been seen in traveling exhibitions under various misspellings. "Nurosaurus" had a length of 25 meters (80 ft), and a weight of 22.7 tonnes (25 tons). The proposed binomial name is "Nurosaurus qaganensis" (Dong, 1992).

Location

"Nurosaurus" was one of the largest Chinese long-necked plant eaters. It may have been related to the North American Camarasaurus. This is seen because "Nurosaurus" has as a similar head and body shape. Photographs also show it had similarly-split neural spines on its back vertebrae.

Spelling

A close-up of the head of "Nurosaurus qaganensis".

Several name variants of "Nurosaurus" are known, the most common being "Nuoerosaurus" (Dong and Li, 1991). The fossil has even traveled under this name under some North American tours. The specific name has been spelled either "qaganensis" or "chaganensis". The official spelling will not be known until it is formally described in a peer-reviewed paper.

References

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