page_title: Gasosaurus
section_title: Classification
hierarchical_section_title: Gasosaurus / Classification
caption_attribution_description: English: Gasosaurus fossil specimen excavated near Dashanpu, Sichuan province, China. It lived in the mid-Jurassic period (164 million years ago). The fossil was on display as part of a touring exhibition "Dinosaurs Unearthed" shown at Bishop Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii
context_page_description: Gasosaurus is a genus of tetanuran theropod that lived approximately 171.6 to 161.2 million years ago during the middle of the Jurassic Period. The name "Gasosaurus" is derived from the English "gasoline" and the Greek σαῦρος. Only one species is currently recognised, G. constructus, from which the specific name honours the gasoline company that found the Dashanpu fossil quarry in Sichuan Province, China, now named as the Lower Shaximiao Formation.
context_section_description: Traditionally thought to be a megalosauroid, Holtz (2000) found it to be a basal coelurosaurian, although later Holtz et al. (2004) suggested it was a basal carnosaur (possibly a metriacanthosaurid) on the basis of data from undescribed specimens. It may in fact be the most basal coelurosaurian yet known, or may even be close to the common ancestor of the two groups; in any case, it represents one of the oldest definitive tetanuran theropods. Some paleontologists have speculated that Gasosaurus and Kaijiangosaurus may be one and the same species.
  Because of the fragmentary nature of the known Gasosaurus fossils, it has an uncertain position within Tetanurae, and probably lays outside Coelurosauria. A detailed restudy of the holotype is underway that may change its classification.
caption: Reconstructed skeleton with hypothetical head, Bishop Museum
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