Yangchuanosaurus

Yangchuanosaurus (pronounced Yang-chew-on-o-saur-us) was a Metriacanthosaurid. It lived around 155 million

Yangchuanosaurus sp.
Name meaning:                         Yongchuan's Lizard
Area:                                                            China
Period:                                              Late Jurassic
Diet:                                           meat and corpses
Lenght:                                                   11m (36ft)
Height:                                              3-4m (10-13ft)
Weight:                                                              5 t

Size

Yangchuanosaurus is pretty heavy for an Allosaur, being up to 5 tons. It was as long as Allosaurus, being up to 36 feet (or 11 meters) long. It also had a skull slightly shorter than that of Allosaurus, only around 3 feet (or 1 meter) long or less.

A pair of Yangchuanosaurus after a hunt

Prey and Hunting

Yangchuanosaurus had similar prey to Allosaurus, Stegosaurs and Sauropods. They probably hunted like Allosaurus did too, by hunting in packs. This way, they could take down large Sauropods to feed the pack for an entire week with food for scavengers too. They could just kill smaller Stegosaurs for a quick and easy meal. Nothing has been confirmed about this, but if Yangchuanosaurus is similar to Allosaurus, then we could assume that it had a fairly weak bite force, and to kill its prey, could use a very special "hatchet bite" technique where the user swings his head down like an ax or hatchet and hits whatever its prey is with a very considerable force. Although it may have had a strong enough bite to kill its prey without this special way of attacking, we simply aren’t sure.

Speed

Yangchuanosaurus is a Metriacanthosaurid, but is very similar to Allosaurus. Like Allosaurus, Yangchuanosaurus was probably a fairly fast runner, but because of the vast weight difference and barely any length difference, Yangchuanosaurus was probably a much slower dinosaur, probably being able to run at only 25 mph.

Species:

• Yangchuanosaurus shangyuoenis (pronounced Shang-you-en-is)

Y. shangyuoenis is probably the most commonly depicted species of Yangchuanosaurus. It was the first skeleton of a Yangchuanosaurus found. It was also once mistaken for Metriacanthosaurus and called Metriacanthosaurus shangyouenis. Y. shangyuoenis is around 30 feet long and 2-3 tons.

• Yangchuanosaurus magnus (pronounced Mag-nus)

Y. magnus is the biggest Yangchuanosaurus that has been found. Only part of a skull has been found of it, but it was considerably bigger than that of Y. shanyuoenis. It was up to 36 feet long and 5 tons (as said above).

• Yangchuanosaurus zigongensis (pronounced Zig-ong-en-sis)

Y. zigongensis has been found on many different occasions. Their bones are fragmentary, but enough of it has been preserved so we can tell that its Yangchuanosaurus, even through it used to be a different dinosaur, Szechuanosaurus.

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