Dongyangosaurus
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Dongyangosaurus sinensis fossil |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Cretaceous ( Cenomanium to Santonium ) | ||||||||||||
| 100.5 to 83.6 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Dongyangosaurus | ||||||||||||
| Lü et al. 2008 | ||||||||||||
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Dongyangosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous China . The only species is Dongyangosaurus sinensis . So far, only a single, partially preserved skeleton is known, which was discovered in Zhejiang Provinceand scientifically described for the first time in 2008. As with all sauropods, it was a large, four-legged herbivore with a long neck.
description
The only skeleton ( holotype , copy number DYM 04888) is kept in the Dongyang Museum ( Dongyang , Zhejiang). The skeleton comprises 10 vertebrae, the sacrum, two caudal vertebrae and the pelvis. All bones are in situ on a rock block from which they have only been partially dissected . The skeleton is completely in the original skeletal composite.
Dongyangosaurus was a large sauropod that could have reached 15 meters in length and 5 meters in height. The dorsal vertebrae are characterized by eye-shaped pleurocoels (lateral cavities) and by low and forked spinous processes . The sacrum consists of six sacral vertebrae fused together. The caudal vertebrae are procoel , that is, concave on the front and convex on the back - in the living animal, the ends form a ball- and- socket joint with the vertebrae following in front and behind. The ribs were pneumatic (lined with air-filled chambers). The pubic bone , the forward-facing bone of the pelvis, was shorter than the backward-facing ischium . The obturatorium was small and elongated.
Systematics
The relationships of this genus are unclear. The pneumatic ribs as well as the six sacral vertebrae, however, suggest a classification within the Titanosauriformes . This group includes the Titanosauria , the Brachiosauridae and various original genera.
Find and naming
The Upper Cretaceous of Zhejiang Province is best known for finds of fossil dinosaur eggs. Skeletal remains are rare - so far only the sauropod Jiangshanosaurus from the Jinhua formation , the theropod Chilantaisaurus zhejiangensis , and the nodosaurid Zhejiangosaurus from the Chaochuan formation have been described. Dongyangosaurus comes from the Fangyan formation . The age of this formation is unclear, currently the early Upper Cretaceous ( Cenomanium to Santonium ) is given as the most likely age.
The find was made in the village of Baidian in the independent city of Dongyang , from which the generic name is derived. The second part of the species name, sinensis , is Greek for "from China".
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Octávio Mateus, Louis L. Jacobs, Anne S. Schulp, Michael J. Polcyn, Tatiana S. Tavares, André Buta Neto, Maria Luísa Morais, Miguel T. Antunes: Angolatitan adamastor, a new sauropod dinosaur and the first record from Angola. In: Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências. Vol. 83, No. 1, 2011, ISSN 0001-3765 , pp. 221-233, doi : 10.1590 / S0001-37652011000100012 .
- ↑ a b c d e Lü Junchang, Yoichi Azuma, Chen Rongjun, Zheng Wenjie, Jin Xingsheng: A New Titanosauriform Sauropod from the Early Late Cretaceous of Dongyang, Zhejiang Province. In: Acta Geologica Sinica. English edition. Vol. 82, No. 2, 2008, ISSN 1000-9515 , pp. 225-235, doi : 10.1111 / j.1755-6724.2008.tb00572.x .
- ^ John A. Whitlock, Michael D. D'Emic, Jeffrey A. Wilson: Cretaceous diplodocids in Asia? Re-evaluating the phylogenetic affinities of a fragmentary specimen. In: Palaeontology. Vol. 54, No. 2, 2011, ISSN 0031-0239 , pp. 351-364, doi : 10.1111 / j.1475-4983.2010.01029.x .