Hudiesaurus
| Hudiesaurus Temporal range: Late Jurassic, | |
|---|---|
| Size comparison and skeletal diagram showing the approximate placement of the known vertebra | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Family: | †Mamenchisauridae |
| Genus: | †Hudiesaurus Dong, 1997 |
| Species: | †H. sinojapanorum |
| Binomial name | |
| †Hudiesaurus sinojapanorum Dong, 1997 | |
Hudiesaurus (meaning "butterfly lizard") is an extinct genus of mamenchisaurid sauropod dinosaurs from China. Its fossil remains were found in 1993 by a Chinese-Japanese expedition near Qiketai in Shanshan, Xinjiang province. The genus contains a single species, Hudiesaurus sinojapanorum, was named and described by Dong Zhiming in 1997. The generic name is derived from Mandarin hudie, meaning "butterfly," and refers to a flat butterfly-shaped process on the front base of the vertebral spine. The specific name refers to the members of the Sino-Japan Silk Road Dinosaur Expedition but can also be read as "central part" in Chinese, a pun on the Japanese Chunichi Shimbun (again "central part") press group, which financed the research.