Omeisaurus

Type Species: Omeisaurus junghsiensis

Classification: Dinosauria – Saurischia – Sauropoda – Gravisauria - Eusauropoda - Mamenchisauridae 

Time Period: Middle Jurassic

Location: China 

Diet: Herbivore 

Fossils of several individual Omeisaurus were discovered in Sichuan Province, China, indicating that an entire herd had died and were buried together. These sauropods grew up to sixty-six feet in length and looked a lot like the later Mamenchisaurus (to whose ‘group’ they belong). Omeisaurus had an extremely long neck, stocky limbs, and a short body. The long neck may have been used to reach food high in the trees, or it may have been held horizontally over the ground to feed on large swathes of low-growing foliage. In this second manner of feeding, Omeisaurus would take a few steps forward and then swoop its neck over the vegetation, slowly creating a crescent-shaped swathe of devastated vegetation. This would’ve required less energy than high browsing. Omeisaurus tail was relatively short, and it may have included a club like the later Shunosaurus (though most scientists believe the club did indeed belong to Shunosaurus).