Datousaurus

Type Species: Datousaurus bashanensis
Classification: Dinosauria – Saurischia – Sauropoda – Gravisauria - Eusauropoda - Mamenchisauridae
Time Period: Middle Jurassic
Location: China
Diet: Herbivore

Datousaurus was a sauropod that lived in China between the Callovian stage of the Middle Jurassic to the Oxfordian stage of the Late Jurassic. Only two partial skeletons have been discovered; neither of these had an articulated skull, but a detached skull has been attributed to the dinosaur. Because most sauropod remains include numerous individuals of different ages, implying a herd, Datousaurus ‘loner’ status has been intriguing; this has led some paleontologists to suggest that it was a ‘rogue’ sort of sauropod that didn’t live in family herds. Datousaurus was fifty feet snout-to-tail, and it had a deep, boxlike skull similar to that of the later Camarasaurus. During the Oxfordian stage, it lived alongside the sauropod Shunosaurus; though these two sauropods lived side-by-side, they likely practiced niche partitioning so that their foodstuffs didn’t overlap. Datousaurus’ elongated vertebrae gave it a higher reach than Shunosaurus, and its teeth were more spoon-shaped than those of the rival. Differences in teeth shape may indicate diets revolving around different plants. Other contemporaries of Datousaurus included the stegosaur Huayangosaurus and the theropod hunters Gasosaurus and Yangchuanosaurus.