The holotype (IVPP V. 10614), discovered in 1974, consists of skull fragments, five cervicals, six dorsals, seven sacrals, and three caudals, limb fragments, scutes and some unidentifiable fragments. The type specimen was informally referred to as "Jurassosaurus" after the 1993 film
Jurassic Park, and the species epithet
nedegoapeferima is formed from the surnames of the film's main stars:
Sam Neill,
Laura Dern,
Jeff Goldblum,
Richard Attenborough,
Bob Peck,
Martin Ferrero,
Ariana Richards, and
Joseph Mazzello. Director
Steven Spielberg, who funded dinosaur research via the non-profit Dinosaur Socidty donated $25,000 to name the dinosaur in honor of the cast as a "wrap" present at the completion. of filming. Dinosaur Society founder, Don Lessem proposed the name Jurassosaurus nedegoaperferkamorum ("ne" for Same Neill, "de" for Laura Dern, "go" for Jeff Goldblum, "a" for Sir Richard Attenborough, etc)
Dong Zhiming ultimately discarded the genus name "Jurassosaurus" (which is now a
nomen nudum) in favor of
Tianchisaurus, but retained the species name honoring the actors. The description paper uses the spellings
Tianchiasaurus and
Tianchisaurus interchangeably, but is spelled with the extra "a" in the section naming it as a new genus. In 1994, Dong published an erratum stating that
Tianchisaurus is the correct name. "Sanghongesaurus", mentioned by
Zhao Xijin (1983), is sometimes referred to as a basal
ornithischian or a synonym of
Tianchisaurus. ==See also==