Chiayusaurus

Chiayu lizard

• Chiayu · Chinese (place name) · Chiayu (Jiayu), a place in China
• saurus · Greek · lizard

The name Chiayusaurus combines the Wade-Giles romanisation "Chiayu" (modern pinyin: Jiayuguan) — referring to the Jiayuguan area of Gansu Province, China, near where the fossils were found — with the Greek word "sauros," meaning lizard. It thus translates roughly as "Chiayu lizard," honouring the locality of discovery. The name was applied to fragmentary sauropod material recovered from China.

Named by

Bohlin

Year named

1953

Period

Late Cretaceous

Found in

Gansu Province, China

Chiayusaurus is generally regarded as a nomen dubium. It was named by Birger Bohlin in 1953 on the basis of very fragmentary sauropod teeth and material from Gansu, China. Because the material is too incomplete to reliably diagnose a distinct genus, most modern assessments consider the name unresolvable. It is not a junior synonym of a specific genus, simply indeterminate sauropod material.