biology

Gongbusaurus

Gongbusaurus is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Gongbusaurus rather than just read about it. In short: Gongbusaurus is a genus of ornithischian, perhaps ornithopod, dinosaur that lived between about 160 and 157 million years ago, in the Late Jurassic period. A small herbivore, it is very poorly known.

Key takeaways

Gongbusaurus belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Gongbusaurus to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Gongbusaurus from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Gongbusaurus is a genus of ornithischian, perhaps ornithopod, dinosaur that lived between about 160 and 157 million years ago, in the Late Jurassic period. A small herbivore, it is very poorly known. Two species have been assigned to it, but as the original name is based on teeth, there is no concrete evidence to connect the two species. Its fossils have been found in China.

Description Gongbusaurus, by extrapolation from the remains of possible species "G." wucaiwanensis and other basal ornithopods, was a herbivorous bipedal animal around 1.3 to 1.5 meters (4.3 to 4.9 ft) long. The tibia of "G." wucaiwanensis is 19.5 centimetres long. It would have been a strong runner.

Classification Dong Zhiming, Zhou Shiwu, and Zhang Zicheng, who originally described the type species G. shiyii, thought it was most similar to Fabrosaurus and assigned it to the nebulous Fabrosauridae. Upon description of the second species "G." wucaiwanensis several years later, Dong elected to assign it to Hypsilophodontidae, an equally nebulous (paraphyletic) family of somewhat more derived small bipedal ornithischians, while at about the same time, David B. Weishampel and Larry Witmer found Gongbusaurus to be an indeterminate basal ornithischian. The most recent reviews also found the genus to be a dubious ornithischian, and recommended renaming the better-known second species. Peter Galton has noted that the teeth on which Gongbusaurus is based resemble those of Sarcolestes and Gastonia, so the genus may actually be an ankylosaurian.

History

Dong and his coauthors established Gongbusaurus on two small teeth, holotype IVPP V9069: one, V9069-1, from the beak (premaxilla), and the other, V9069-2, from the cheek (maxilla). These remains came from the Oxfordian-age Upper Shaximiao Formation in Sichuan, China and were found by a unit of the Chinese aerial survey behind an elementary school in the village of Huangtong, part of the Duxin commune, in Rongxian or Rong County. The type species Gongbusaurus shiyii was named and described by Dong, Zhou, and Zhang in 1983. The generic name is derived from the imperial ministry, bu, of public works, gong, in honour of the great poet Du Fu who in Sichuan worked for that ministry after 760, in the rank of shi yi, "junior consultant", which explains the specific name. As shi yi also can mean "register of lost objects" the specific name is at the same time a pun on the fact that the teeth were later separately found among the assorted bones collected during the dig. Dong added a second species, "G." wucaiwanensis, in 1989 for a fragmentary skeleton (holotype IVPP 8302) including a partial lower jaw, three tail vertebrae, and a partial forelimb, and added another specimen (paratype IVPP 8303) consisting of two hip vertebrae, eight tail vertebrae, and two complete hind limbs. A partial foot (IVPP 8304) and four separate dorsal vertebrae and a caudal vertebra were referred. These remains came from the roughly contemporaneous Shishugou Formation of Wucaiwan, Xinjiang. Tooth species are not well regarded in dinosaur paleontology, because dinosaur teeth are generally not distinctive enough to hold a name. Therefore, it is unsurprising that other paleontologists have suggested removing "G." wucaiwanensis. A possible replacement name, "Eugongbusaurus", has accidentally gotten to the public, but remains informal.

References

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Gongbusaurus

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Gongbusaurus claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Gongbusaurus before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Gongbusaurus ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Gongbusaurus

In research: Gongbusaurus appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Gongbusaurus in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Gongbusaurus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Dinosaur genera, Dinosaurs of China, Fossil taxa described in 1983, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Gongbusaurus outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Gongbusaurus in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Gongbusaurus means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Gongbusaurus out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Gongbusaurus in simple terms?

Gongbusaurus is a genus of ornithischian, perhaps ornithopod, dinosaur that lived between about 160 and 157 million years ago, in the Late Jurassic period. A small herbivore, it is very poorly known.

Why does Gongbusaurus matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Gongbusaurus?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Gongbusaurus.