Lufengosaurus
Name:
Lufengosaurus
(Lufeng lizard).
Phonetic: Lu-feng-sore-us.
Named By: C.-C. Young - 1940.
Synonyms: Tawasaurus.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Sauropodomorpha, Massospondylidae.
Species: L. huenei (type),
L. magnus.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: L. huenei about 6
meters long, L.
magnus about 9 meters long.
Known locations: China - Lufeng Formation.
Time period: Hettangian/Sinemurian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Remains of numerous
individuals representing most parts of the skeleton.
Lufengosaurus
has the honour of being the first dinosaur to ever be assembled and
mounted for display in China, and even today is one of the more
popular exhibits in Chinese natural history displays concerning
dinosaurs. The first species of Lufengosaurus, L.
huenei, was
named in 1940, and a second larger species, L. magnus,
was
named in 1947. However, L. magnus is often
considered to be
synonymous with L. huenei, though usually the
two are cited as
being separate. Lufengosaurus was more or less a
typical
sauropodomorph
(sometimes referred to as a prosauropod),
dinosaur, that was at least capable of a bipedal stance. The teeth
of Lufengosaurus are notably sharp, though these
are not necessarily
an indication of a meat eating diet as such teeth are seen in some
modern herbivorous lizards.
Lufengosaurus
has a confusing relationship with the genus Gyposaurus.
In 1976,
Peter Galton considered the species G. sinensis
to be a juvenile of
Lufengosaurus, something which has led to Gyposaurus
sometimes being
declared to be a synonym However the type species of Gyposaurus,
G.
capensis, has already been popularly synonymised with
Massospondylus.
This means that technically only one species of
Gyposaurus could be referred to Lufengosaurus,
however, in 2004,
Galton and Upchurch considered G. sinensis to
actually represent a
valid species in its own right, though one that can no longer be
called Gyposaurus.
Remains
of soft tissues, specifically collagen fibres associated with the ribs
have been associated with Lufengosaurus remains. This is a rare glimpse
at dinosaur soft tissues, though another example of an increasing
number of soft tissue remains that are being found for dinosaurs.
Further reading
- Preliminary notes on the Lufeng vertebrate fossils. Bulletin of
the Geological Society of China 20(3-4):235-239. - C.-C.
Young - 1940.
- A complete osteology of Lufengosaurus huenei
Young (gen. et
sp. nov.) from Lufeng, Yunnan, China. - Palaeontologia
Sinica, New Series C 7: 1-59. - C. -C. Young - 1941.
- On Lufengosaurus magnus Young (sp. nov.)
and additional finds
of Lufengosaurus huenei Young. - Palaeontologia
Sinica, New
Series C 12: 1-53. - C.-C. Young - 1947.
- Cranial osteology of Lufengosaurus huenei
Young (Dinosauria:
Prosauropoda) from the Lower Jurassic of Yunnan, People’s Republic
of China. - Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology,
25(4):806-822. P. M. Barrett, P. Upchurch &
W. Xiao-lin - 2005.
- Embryology of Early Jurassic dinosaur from China with evidence of
preserved organic remains. - Nature. 496 (7444): 210–214. - Reisz,
Robert R., Huang, Timothy D., Roberts, Eric M., Peng, ShinRung,
Sullivan, Corwin, Stein, Koen, LeBlanc, Aaron R.H., Shieh, DarBin,
Chang, RongSeng, Chiang, ChengCheng, Yang, Chuanwei, and Zhong, Shiming
- 2013.
- Evidence of preserved collagen in an Early Jurassic sauropodomorph
dinosaur revealed by synchrotron FTIR microspectroscopy. - Nature
Communications. 8 (1): 14220. - Yao-Chang Lee, Cheng-Cheng Chiang,
Pei-Yu Huang, Chao-Yu Chung, Timothy D. Huang, Chun-Chieh Wang,
Ching-Iue Chen, Rong-Seng Chang, Cheng-Hao Liao & Robert R.
Reisz - 2017.
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