- "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 Doug 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.
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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 is eating, replacing the Parasaurolophus.
Trivia[]
- The mention of Datousaurus in the film novelisation is because in the script the carcass was intended be a sauropod before being replaced by Parasaurolophus. This is due to the prop for the latter pre-existing thanks to being made for an alternate opening for The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
References[]
- ↑ "Dinopedia: Datousaurus". Jurassic Park Institute. Archived from the original on October 6, 2003.
