Omeisaurus
Omeisaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Middle to Late Jurassic Period of what is now China. Its name comes from Mount Emei, where it was discovered in the lower Shaximiao Formation of Sichuan Province.

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- Sits inside
- MamenchisauridaePBDB
- Diet
- herbivorePBDB, for Sauropoda
- Life habit
- ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Sauropoda
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Sauropoda
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Sauropoda
- Length
- 20 mWikidata
Time the record covers
At least 19 million years on record.
The record covers at least 168.2 Mya to 149.2 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 174.7 Mya to 143.1 Mya.
13 occurrences of Omeisaurus on record, most of them in the Middle 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
13 occurrencesThese 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
1 formation
- Shaximiao Formation · Chongqing Group10
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The named rock units Omeisaurus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Omeisaurus and its relatives
Middle JurassicWhere Omeisaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Middle Jurassic.
Found in the same rock
48 taxa- Theropoda5 sites
- Hybodus2 sites
- Sauropoda2 sites
- Shunosaurus lii2 sites
- Stegosauria2 sites
- Testudinata2 sites
- Abrosaurus dongpoensis1 site
- Agilisaurus louderbacki1 site
- Angustinaripterus longicephalus1 site
- Bashanosaurus primitivus1 site
- Bashuchelys1 site
- Bashuchelys youngi1 site
- Bienotheroides zigongensis1 site
- Bishanopliosaurus1 site
- Bishanopliosaurus youngi1 site
- Ceratodus1 site
- Chengyuchelys zigongensis1 site
- Chuandongocoelurus primitivus1 site
- Chuannanchelys dashanpuensis1 site
- Dashanpusaurus dongi1 site
- Datousaurus1 site
- Datousaurus bashanensis1 site
- Dinosauria1 site
- Gasosaurus constructus1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 12 sites for Omeisaurus, 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
11 references- Fossil vertebrates from Kuangyuan, N. Szechuan, China2
- On a new Sauropoda, with notes on other fragmentary reptiles from Szechuan2
- Discovery of a New Middle Jurassic Dinosaur Site in Sichuan, China1
- A new species of Omeisaurus (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the Middle Jurassic of Yunyang, Chongqing, China1
- [A new species of Omeisaurus from the Middle Jurassic of Zigong, Sichuan]1
- Tang et al., 20011
- Les sauropodes chinois [The Chinese sauropods]1
- The Middle Jurassic dinosaur fauna from Dashanpu, Zigong, Sichuan. Vol. IV. Sauropod dinosaurs (2). Omeisaurus tianfuensis1
- [Omeisaurus tianfuensis—a new species of Omeisaurus from Dashanpu, Zigong, Sichuan]1
- [Dinosaurs from the Jurassic of Sichuan]1
- New sauropods from China1
Each of the 13 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. 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 content2
Picture of Omeisaurus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Zhangzhugang
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
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
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Omeisaurus”
- 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 itMamenchisauridae through timeFormations of the Middle JurassicThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Young 1939