biology

Guanlingsaurus

Guanlingsaurus 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 Guanlingsaurus rather than just read about it. In short: Guanlingsaurus is an extinct genus of shastasaurid ichthyosaur from the Late Triassic of China. It grew up to 8.3 metres (27 ft) in length and has a wide, triangular skull with a short and toothless snout.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Guanlingsaurus is an extinct genus of shastasaurid ichthyosaur from the Late Triassic of China. It grew up to 8.3 metres (27 ft) in length and has a wide, triangular skull with a short and toothless snout.

Discovery

It is known from a single species, Guanlingsaurus liangae, that was found in the Carnian-age Falang Formation of Guanling County, which is in the province of Guizhou. The genus and species were first named in 2000 on the basis of an incomplete adult skeleton. More complete skeletons were described in 2011, and a complete skeleton belonging to a juvenile was described in 2013. In 2011 Guanlingsaurus liangae was reassigned to the genus Shastasaurus, which includes two species from North America that are known from more complete fossils than Guanlingsaurus. However, the description of the juvenile specimen in 2013 revealed several features that make G. liangae distinct from Shastasaurus species, and the name was reinstated.

Description

The largest specimen of Guanlingsaurus, YIGMR SPCV03109, measures 8.3 metres (27 ft) long, while the juvenile specimen YIGMR SPCV03108 measures 3.74 metres (12.3 ft) in length. In the largest specimen, YIGMR SPCV03109, the skull takes up 8.3% of the total body length, whereas it forms 9.3% in the juvenile specimen YIGMR SPCV03108. Both adult and juvenile specimens of Guanlingsaurus completely lack teeth and do not even possess a dental groove. The very short snout was highly compressed via a unique arrangement of skull bones. All bones of the snout tapered to abrupt points. In 2011, Sander and colleagues interpreted the nasal bones (paired skull roof bones in the middle part of the skull) as extending to the very tip of the snout, a very unusual configuration for a reptile. However, Ji and colleagues did not find this feature, and found the hyoid bone much shorter than previous estimation, indicating that it was not suitable for suction feeding.

Classification Below is a cladogram from Fröbisch et al. (2013) showing Guanlingsaurus liangae as a species of Shastasaurus:

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Guanlingsaurus

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Guanlingsaurus 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 Guanlingsaurus 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 Guanlingsaurus 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 Guanlingsaurus

In research: Guanlingsaurus 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 Guanlingsaurus 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: Guanlingsaurus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Carnian genera, Fossil taxa described in 2000, Fossils of China, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Guanlingsaurus 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 Guanlingsaurus in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Guanlingsaurus 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 Guanlingsaurus out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Guanlingsaurus in simple terms?

Why does Guanlingsaurus 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 Guanlingsaurus?

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 Guanlingsaurus.