Mamenchisauridae

Mamenchisauridae is a family of sauropod dinosaurs belonging to the Eusauropoda known from the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous of Asia and Africa. Mamenchisaurids are characterized by their proportionately extremely long necks. Some members of the group reached gigantic sizes, amongst the largest of all sauropods.

Mamenchisauridae

Zhangzhugang · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
mamenchisauridPBDB
Sits inside
EusauropodaPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Sauropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Sauropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Sauropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Sauropoda

Time the record covers

At least 61 million years on record.

The record covers at least 174.7 Mya to 113.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 201.4 Mya to 110.1 Mya.

Late Triassic — about 0 of 72 occurrencesEarly Jurassic — about 1 of 72 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 25 of 72 occurrencesMiddle JurassicLate Jurassic — about 40 of 72 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 6 of 72 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous203–200 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences200–197 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences197–194 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences194–191 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences191–187 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences187–184 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences184–181 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences181–178 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences178–175 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences175–172 Mya — about 1 occurrence172–168 Mya — about 5 occurrences168–165 Mya — about 9 occurrences165–162 Mya — about 8 occurrences162–159 Mya — about 7 occurrences159–156 Mya — about 6 occurrences156–153 Mya — about 4 occurrences153–149 Mya — about 4 occurrences149–146 Mya — about 10 occurrences146–143 Mya — about 10 occurrences143–140 Mya — about 2 occurrences140–137 Mya — about 1 occurrence134–130 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences130–127 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences127–124 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences121–118 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences118–115 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences115–111 Mya — about 0.8 occurrences111–108 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences174.7 Mya113.2 Mya203 Mya108 Mya

72 occurrences of Mamenchisauridae on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

72 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

22 formations

Shaximiao — 28.70°N, 104.52°EShaximiao — 28.83°N, 104.13°EShaximiao — 29.48°N, 104.37°EShaximiao — 32.37°N, 106.90°EShaximiao — 30.10°N, 103.80°EShaximiao — 29.80°N, 104.85°EShaximiao — 30.00°N, 107.25°EShaximiao — 29.41°N, 104.77°EShaximiao — 28.35°N, 104.78°EShaximiao — 29.41°N, 104.85°EShaximiao — 29.22°N, 104.77°EShaximiao — 29.65°N, 104.07°EShaximiao — 30.94°N, 108.75°EShaximiao — 29.61°N, 104.19°EShishugou — 44.80°N, 90.05°EShishugou — 45.26°N, 89.50°EShishugou — 44.88°N, 89.18°EShishugou — 44.02°N, 89.47°EShishugou — 45.19°N, 88.92°EShishugou — 44.97°N, 90.19°EShishugou — 44.84°N, 90.06°EUlan Malgait — 44.13°N, 95.79°EPhu Kradung — 16.27°N, 104.43°EPhu Kradung — 16.74°N, 104.18°EPhu Kradung — 16.40°N, 104.28°EPhu Kradung — 16.65°N, 102.25°EKalazha — 42.87°N, 90.17°ESuining — 30.15°N, 105.30°ESuining — 29.00°N, 106.58°ESuining — 30.18°N, 105.80°ETendaguru — 9.71°S, 39.23°ETendaguru — 9.79°S, 39.12°EXiangtang — 36.34°N, 102.85°EXiangtang — 36.34°N, 102.82°EZhanghe — 25.95°N, 101.91°EChuanjie — 24.97°N, 102.08°EHongqin — 29.72°N, 118.33°EHongqin — 29.79°N, 118.45°EZhonggou — 41.47°N, 97.97°EDariv — 46.35°N, 94.12°EKhlong Min — 7.76°N, 99.15°EPenglaizhen — 30.15°N, 105.30°EItat — 55.65°N, 89.18°EYimen — 26.34°N, 102.14°EQiketai — 42.96°N, 90.57°EQigu — 43.55°N, 87.26°EWangjiashan — 36.75°N, 104.84°EDongxing — 21.55°N, 107.97°EUpper Shaximiao — 30.18°N, 106.21°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Mamenchisauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 5 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Mamenchisauridae and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Mamenchisauridae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

180 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 64 sites for Mamenchisauridae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

54 references

Each of the 72 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 42 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Mamenchisauridae

Credit
Zhangzhugang
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Mamenchisauridae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itEusauropoda through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Chao 1965)