Szechuanosaurus

Sichuan lizard

• Szechuan · Chinese place name (Wade-Giles romanisat · Sichuan (a province of China)
• sauros · Greek · lizard

The name honours Szechuan (now standardly romanised as Sichuan), a large province in south-western China where the fossils were discovered. "Szechuan" is the older Wade-Giles romanisation of the Chinese name 四川 (Sìchuān). The second element, "-saurus", is the standard Latinised Greek word for lizard that is used in countless dinosaur names. Together the name simply means "lizard from Sichuan."

Named by

Young

Year named

1942

Period

Late Jurassic

Stages

Oxfordian – Tithonian

Found in

Shangshaximiao Formation and Suining Formation, Sichuan Province, China

Szechuanosaurus is a theropod dinosaur (likely a sinraptorid or closely related large carnivore) from the Late Jurassic of China. The type species S. campi (Young, 1942) is generally considered a nomen dubium because the original material is fragmentary and diagnostic features are unclear. Additional species (S. zigongensis and S. yandonensis) have been referred to the genus but their placement is also uncertain. Some referred material may belong to Yangchuanosaurus or other contemporaneous theropods.