Gas Lizards

Chinese dinosaurs are very popular these days. The larger predators are usually well known, but one has escaped the public fascination for the majority of its known existence. That dinosaur is a small carnosaur known as Gasosaurus constructus. Recovered in the Sichuan province, Gasosaurus was a small mid-Jurassic carnivore similar to Ceratosaurus in its placement in the food chain and general environment. Like its North American cousins Gasosaurus hunted thyreophorans (Stegosaurs) of China. Despite its serious weaponry, Gasosaurus, or maybe more the humans studying it, was the subject of a hoax in 2014 that we will most definitely discuss in this coming week.