Discovery and naming Suzhousaurus

restoration

the type species suzhousaurus megatherioides named , described li daqing, peng cuo, hailu, matthew lamanna, jerrald harris, kenneth lacovara , zhang jianping in 2007. generic name derived suzhou, old name jiuquan, prefecture find made in during late twentieth century. specific name indicates resemblance megatherium, giant ground sloth.

the holotype, frdc-gsjb-99, found in layers dating aptian-albian. consists of partial skeleton lacking skull. contains distinctive right upper arm establishes therizinosauroid, right scapula, ten dorsal vertebrae, ribs, partial ilium , pubis. in 2008 partial postcranial skeleton described, specimen frdc-gsjb-2004-001 found in 2004 @ same site. contains last 3 dorsal vertebrae, sacrum of 5 vertebrae, first 6 tail vertebrae, left half of pelvis , 2 thighbones.

suzhousaurus might identical nanshiungosaurus bohlini, earlier named therizinosauroid found in same formation , known limited remains. if so, species name suzhousaurus bohlini. comparison difficult because there little overlapping material , holotype of nanshiungosaurus bohlini lost.