Lufengosaurus, (Chinese: 祿豐龍 or 禄丰龙, meaning "Lufeng Lizard"), was a prosauropod dinosaur which lived during the Early and Middle Jurassic period in what is now southwestern China. At about 6 metres (20 ft) long, it was the first complete dinosaur skeleton mounted in China; a commemorative postage stamp was issued in 1958 to celebrate the event.
Discovery, taxonomy, and research[]
Lufengosaurus in a quadrupedal pose, skeleton donated to the Hong Kong Science Museum in 1998
During the late 1930's geologist Bien Meinian began to uncover fossils at Shawan near Lufeng in Yunnan province. In 1938 he was joined by paleontologist Yang Zhongjian, at the time better known as "C.C. Young" in the West. In 1941, Yang named remains of a prosauropod Lufengosaurus huenei. The generic name refers to Lufeng. The specific name honours Yang's old tutor, the German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene.[2]
The holotype, IVPP V15, a partial skeleton, was found in the Lower Lufeng Formation. Originally considered Triassic, this formation is now seen as dating to the Lower Jurassic (Hettangian–Sinemurian). A second species was named by Yang in 1940/1941 and fully described in 1947:[3] Lufengosaurus magnus was, as its specific name suggests ("the large one" in Latin), a significantly (up to a third in length) larger creature than L. huenei. However, in the West this is often considered a junior synonym of Lufengosaurus huenei, representing large individuals. About thirty major specimens have been discovered, including those of juveniles.[4] In 1958 an exemplar of Lufengosaurus was the first complete dinosaur skeleton mounted in China; a commemorative postage stamp[1] of 8 yuan was issued on 15 April 1958 to celebrate the event, the first time ever a dinosaur was depicted on a stamp.
In 1940 Yang named another prosauropod: Gyposaurus sinensis. In 1976 Peter Galton considered this species to be identical to Lufengosaurus. As it is found in Bajocian stage deposits of China, this would make Lufengosaurus one of the few "prosauropod" genera to survive into the Middle Jurassic. However, the identity is today generally doubted.[5]
In 1981, Michael Cooper suggested that Lufengosaurus and Yunnanosaurus were species of the South African genus Massospondylus.[6] However, a reanalysis in 2005 by Paul Barrett and colleagues of the skull of Lufengosaurus huenei establishes it as a distinct genus separate from either Massospondylus or Yunnanosaurus.
In 1985 Zhao Xijin in a species list named another species: Lufengosaurus changduensis, based on a specimen found in Tibet. This has remained an undescribed nomen nudum.
Description[]
Size of L. huenei (light green) and L. magnus (dark green)
Lufengosaurus is often described as a rather small prosauropod, about 6 metres (20 ft) long.[1] However, when the "L. magnus" specimens are included, its size is more considerable: Gregory S. Paul estimated a length of 9 metres (30 ft) and a weight of 1.7 metric tons (1.9 short tons) in 2010.[9] For a prosauropod, its neck is rather long and the forelimbs are relatively short. From these it was inferred that the species was bipedal, even before it became common to assume this for all basal sauropodomorphs. Yang published a full osteology of Lufengosaurus in 1941,[10] but was severely hampered in his diagnosis by the war conditions, preventing a full access to literature and making an adequate comparison with related forms impossible. Of the skull a modern description exists. The skull of the holotype is 25 centimetres (9.8 in) long.
Skull[]
Lufengosaurus magnus skull, Beijing Museum of Natural History
Lufengosaurus snout was deep and broad, and it had distinctive bony bumps just behind its large nostrils and on its cheeks. A bony ridge on the side of its upper jaw might have helped anchor soft tissue. If so, then Lufengosaurus must have had larger cheeks than most other sauropodomorphs. Its closely spaced, serrated teeth suited a diet of leaves.
Classification[]
Young originally assigned Lufengosaurus to the Plateosauridae of the suborder Prosauropoda, noting that it stood close to Plateosaurus fraasianus. It is still sometimes considered a member of Plateosauridae, though some cladistic analyses have found it to be a member of Massospondylidae instead. This matches with our current knowledge of Lufengosaurus' anatomy, which has proven to be more similar to taxa like Coloradisaurus and Massospondylus than was previously thought, with Lufengosaurus formerly being considered to have more anatomical similarities with Plateosaurus. Lufengosaurus has historically had a maximum of three named species, only one of these being almost unilaterally considered valid nowadays: L. huenei. The other two species, L. magnus and L. "changduensis", are respectively considered a junior synonym and a nomen nudum. Specimens assigned to L. magnus in the past are now referred to the type species instead.
Barret, Upchurch and Wang recovered Lufengosaurus as being the sister taxon to Gyposaurus sinensis in their 2005 cladistic analysis. A differing result was recovered from a cladistic analysis done by Fernando E. Novas and colleagues in 2011, which recovered the animal as the sister taxon to Glacialisaurus hammeri. This result was replicated by Oliver W. M. Rauhut and colleagues' 2020 analysis. A simplified version of the resulting cladogram, not showing the part including the Sauropodiform taxa, is shown below.
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Paleobiology[]
Lufengosaurus huenei pelvis.
Like all early sauropodomorphs, Lufengosaurus had much longer hindlimbs than forelimbs and was probably bipedal. It was herbivorous, although it had sharp claws (with an especially large thumb claw) and teeth. These features have been used to support claims, the most recent by Cooper in 1981, that Lufengosaurus may have been at least partially omnivorous, but the sharp teeth witnessed in Lufengosaurus and other early sauropodomorphs are similar to those seen in iguanaian lizards – which are herbivorous. Alternatively, the claws may have been used for defense or raking foliage from trees. Embryos of this genus also represent the earliest evidence of vertebrate soft tissue preservation.
JPInstitute.com Description[]
A close relative of Plateosaurus, Lufengosaurus was a part of the family that evolved into the huge plant-eating, sauropod (long-neck) dinosaur family. In the early part of the Jurassic, dinosaurs had not differentiated themselves to a large extent and many shared common ancestors and characteristics.
Lufengosaurus was primarily quadrapedal, but it still had the ability to stand bipedally. It was developing the long neck and tail for which its descendants would become known, and it gives scientists important information about the early migration patterns of dinosaurs into Asia.
Recently, some scientists are classifying the prosauropods, including Plateosaurus, as a separate group of creatures and not simply as the ancestors of the later Jurassic sauropods.
Links[]
References[]
1. Picture from Kidsdinos [1]
2. Information Credits to "ROMTECH" Computer CD Dinosaur Discovery