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Lufengosaurus
Lufengosaurus (Chinese: 祿豐龍 or 禄丰龙, meaning "Lufeng lizard") is a genus of massospondylid dinosaur which lived during the Early Jurassic period in what is now southwestern China.
The first remains of Lufengosaurus were found during the late 1930s by geologist Bien Meinian in the Lower Lufeng Formation at Shawan, near Lufeng in the Yunnan Province of China. From 1938 onwards, Meinian was joined by paleontologist C. C. Young (Chinese: 杨钟健, Yáng Zhōngjiàn). Young would go on to name the animal's type species, Lufengosaurus huenei, in 1940, with the generic name referring to Lufeng where it was found and the specific name honoring Young's old tutor, the German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene. Young would go on to publish a detailed description of the animal the following year and would assign specimen IVPP V15 as the holotype of the species, this specimen consisting of a nearly complete skeleton with a well-preserved skull.
A second species of Lufengosaurus, L. magnus, was also named by Young in 1940 in the same paper as Lufengosaurus huenei and would be fully described by him in 1947. As its specific name suggests, with the word magnus meaning "the large one" in Latin, this species was considered separate from L. huenei due to its significantly larger size, with it being up to a third larger than L. huenei in length. However, most authors have regarded it as a junior synonym of L. huenei, with its specimens being said to simply represent larger individuals of the type species.
Another "prosauropod" Young named in 1940, Gyposaurus sinensis, was noted by him to be distinct from Lufengosaurus on behalf of the limbs being at least 50% smaller, though similarities in overall form were noted. This genus has subsequently been referred to Lufengosaurus on two separate occasions: once by Peter Galton in 1976 and once in a 2017 SVP presentation by Wang and colleagues. The referral is however doubted by some.
Lufengosaurus would be referred to another genus yet again in the 1980s, with Michael Cooper suggesting that Lufengosaurus and Yunnanosaurus were species of the South African genus Massospondylus 1981. However, a reanalysis in 2005 by Paul Barrett and colleagues, performed on the skull of Lufengosaurus huenei established it firmly as a valid genus separate from both Massospondylus and Yunnanosaurus based on craniodental characteristics. This same 2005 study would provide an extensive and detailed redescription of the cranial osteology of the holotype skull of the animal.
The year 1985 saw Zhao Xijin name a new species of the animal in a list of Jurassic reptiles from China. Zhao named it Lufengosaurus "changduensis", with the naming of the animal being prompted by the recovery of a specimen from Tibet. The species has however remained undescribed and thus a nomen nudum, with neither the reported Tibetan specimen nor any other material being formally assigned to it after it was named.
In 2015, preserved collagen protein was found in a Lufengosaurus fossil by an international team led by Yao-Chang Lee of Taiwan's National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center. The protein, described in Nature Communications (2017 January 31), was over 100 million years older than any previously recorded fossil protein, having sizeable implications for our understanding of protein preservation.
Lufengosaurus is often described as a rather small early sauropodomorph, about 6 metres (20 ft) long. 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, while Benson et al. (2014) estimated a mass of 2.3 tonnes (2.5 short tons). For an early sauropodomorph, 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, 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.
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Lufengosaurus
Lufengosaurus (Chinese: 祿豐龍 or 禄丰龙, meaning "Lufeng lizard") is a genus of massospondylid dinosaur which lived during the Early Jurassic period in what is now southwestern China.
The first remains of Lufengosaurus were found during the late 1930s by geologist Bien Meinian in the Lower Lufeng Formation at Shawan, near Lufeng in the Yunnan Province of China. From 1938 onwards, Meinian was joined by paleontologist C. C. Young (Chinese: 杨钟健, Yáng Zhōngjiàn). Young would go on to name the animal's type species, Lufengosaurus huenei, in 1940, with the generic name referring to Lufeng where it was found and the specific name honoring Young's old tutor, the German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene. Young would go on to publish a detailed description of the animal the following year and would assign specimen IVPP V15 as the holotype of the species, this specimen consisting of a nearly complete skeleton with a well-preserved skull.
A second species of Lufengosaurus, L. magnus, was also named by Young in 1940 in the same paper as Lufengosaurus huenei and would be fully described by him in 1947. As its specific name suggests, with the word magnus meaning "the large one" in Latin, this species was considered separate from L. huenei due to its significantly larger size, with it being up to a third larger than L. huenei in length. However, most authors have regarded it as a junior synonym of L. huenei, with its specimens being said to simply represent larger individuals of the type species.
Another "prosauropod" Young named in 1940, Gyposaurus sinensis, was noted by him to be distinct from Lufengosaurus on behalf of the limbs being at least 50% smaller, though similarities in overall form were noted. This genus has subsequently been referred to Lufengosaurus on two separate occasions: once by Peter Galton in 1976 and once in a 2017 SVP presentation by Wang and colleagues. The referral is however doubted by some.
Lufengosaurus would be referred to another genus yet again in the 1980s, with Michael Cooper suggesting that Lufengosaurus and Yunnanosaurus were species of the South African genus Massospondylus 1981. However, a reanalysis in 2005 by Paul Barrett and colleagues, performed on the skull of Lufengosaurus huenei established it firmly as a valid genus separate from both Massospondylus and Yunnanosaurus based on craniodental characteristics. This same 2005 study would provide an extensive and detailed redescription of the cranial osteology of the holotype skull of the animal.
The year 1985 saw Zhao Xijin name a new species of the animal in a list of Jurassic reptiles from China. Zhao named it Lufengosaurus "changduensis", with the naming of the animal being prompted by the recovery of a specimen from Tibet. The species has however remained undescribed and thus a nomen nudum, with neither the reported Tibetan specimen nor any other material being formally assigned to it after it was named.
In 2015, preserved collagen protein was found in a Lufengosaurus fossil by an international team led by Yao-Chang Lee of Taiwan's National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center. The protein, described in Nature Communications (2017 January 31), was over 100 million years older than any previously recorded fossil protein, having sizeable implications for our understanding of protein preservation.
Lufengosaurus is often described as a rather small early sauropodomorph, about 6 metres (20 ft) long. 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, while Benson et al. (2014) estimated a mass of 2.3 tonnes (2.5 short tons). For an early sauropodomorph, 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, 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.