Sanpasaurus

{{Short description|Extinct species of reptile}}

{{Speciesbox

| fossil_range = Early Jurassic, {{fossilrange|183}}

| image = Sanpasaurus dorsal vertebra.png

| image_caption = Dorsal vertebra

| genus = Sanpasaurus

| parent_authority = Young, 1944

| species = yaoi

| authority = Young, 1944

}}

File:Chevron of Sanpasaurus.png of Sanpasaurus in anterior view (A), posterior view (B), and lateral view (C), with 5-cm black bar for scale.]]

Sanpasaurus ("Sanpa lizard") is a poorly known sauropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of Sichuan, China. The type species, S. yaoi, was described by Chung Chien Young, in 1944. The type remains, IVPP V.156, consists of 20 vertebrae, scapulae, forelimbs, and some hindlimb bones.C.-C. Young. 1944. On the reptilian remains from Weiyuan, Szechuan, China. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China 24(3–4):187-205.

Initially reported by Young as an ornithopod ornithischian, this specimen was unambiguously referred to Sauropoda[http://dml.cmnh.org/2002Jun/msg00472.html A mention buried at the bottom] of a long discussion of Asian sauropods, on the Dinosaur Mailing List.Upchurch, P. 1995. The evolutionary history of sauropod dinosaurs. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, B, 349:365-390. in 2016 by McPhee et al.,McPhee BW, Upchurch P, Mannion PD, Sullivan C, Butler RJ, Barrett PM. (2016) A revision of Sanpasaurus yaoi Young, 1944 from the Early Jurassic of China, and its relevance to the early evolution of Sauropoda (Dinosauria) PeerJ 4:e2578 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2578 later refined to a basal gravisaurian position by Pol et al. in 2020 and 2022, closely related to Vulcanodon and Tazoudasaurus.{{cite journal |author1=D. Pol |author2=J. Ramezani |author3=K. Gomez |author4=J. L. Carballido |author5=A. Paulina Carabajal |author6=O. W. M. Rauhut |author7=I. H. Escapa |author8=N. R. Cúneo |year=2020 |title=Extinction of herbivorous dinosaurs linked to Early Jurassic global warming event |journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences |volume=287 |issue=1939 |pages=Article ID 20202310 |doi=10.1098/rspb.2020.2310 |pmid=33203331 |s2cid=226982302 |doi-access=free |pmc=7739499 }}{{cite book|last=Pol|first=D.|last2=Gomez|first2=K.|last3=Holwerda|first3=F.H.|last4=Rauhut|first4=O.W.M.|last5=Carballido|first5=J.L.|year=2022|chapter=Sauropods from the Early Jurassic of South America and the Radiation of Eusauropoda|pages=131–163|editor-last=Otero|editor-first=A.|editor2-last=Carballido|editor2-first=J.L.|editor3-last=Pol|editor3-first=D.|title=South American Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs. Record, Diversity and Evolution|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-030-95958-6|doi=10.1007/978-3-030-95959-3|issn=2197-9596}} Sanpasaurus is known from remains recovered from the Maanshan Member of the Ziliujing Formation.