Sanpasaurus is a type of dinosaur called a sauropod. This dinosaur lived during the Early Jurassic period about 183 million years ago in what is now Sichuan, China.
The name Sanpasaurus means “Sanpa lizard,” and it was first described by a scientist named Chung Chien Young in 1944. The main fossils found for this dinosaur include 20 vertebrae, shoulder bones (scapulae), some front leg bones, and some bones from its back legs.
At first, scientists thought Sanpasaurus was a different kind of dinosaur, known as an ornithopod, but later research in 2016 showed it was a sauropod after all. To make things clearer, in 2020 and 2022, it was placed in a specific group of early sauropods called gravisaurians. Sanpasaurus is related to other dinosaurs known as Vulcanodon and Tazoudasaurus.
Many of the remains of Sanpasaurus were found in a rock layer called the Maanshan Member of the Ziliujing Formation. Although we know a little bit about this dinosaur, we still have a lot to learn about it!