A fossil skull found in the northwest of China belongs to a rare group of dinosaurs that is an early member of a lineage of sauropods that are not related to better known species such as Brachiosaur and Apatosaurio.
The sauropods were the largest land animals of all time. They had small distinctive heads and long necks and tails. Sauropods could eat more than 200 kg of plant matter every day: the largest species could have grown to 70-100 tons.
This group of dinosaurs was more diverse and prominent during the late Jurassic period, 201 to 143 million years ago (Mya). The Sauropods were extinguished at the end of the 66 MYA Cretaceous period along with all the dinosaurs that did not evolve in birds.
How sauropods arose, and how they reached such gigantic sizes, they are evolutionary mysteries.
The Sauropods would have evolved from “Sauropodomorphs” that lived in the late Triassic period (252–201 mya), as Mbiraurus -A dinosaur of 230 million years from which a fossil was found in 2022.
The evolution of early Jurassic sauropods saw the development of different clades within the group.
The majority of the best known sauropods belong to a group called Neosauropoda that is within a broader group called Eusauropods and includes almost all long -neck dinosaurs, except the oldest forms of sauropodomorphs.
Non -Neosauropoda fossils in the Eusauropod group are very rare. Complete skulls are even rarely.
Paleontologists who carry out work in China report the discovery of a Eurosauropod Eurosouropod almost not neosauropoda skull in an article published in Scientific reports. The fossil dates from the average Jurassic, around 165 to 168 mya.
Together with the skull there are more than 30 vertebrae. The fossils were found in the Xinhe formation about 1,200 km west of Beijing. The specimen belongs to an unknown species for science and has been appointed Jinchuanloong Niedu After the Jinchuan district, where it was discovered.
Compared paleontologists Jinchuanloong To other Sauropods of East Asia and found a combination of primitive characteristics together with those present in subsequent Sauropod species.
The arches not merged into the vertebrae and the characteristics of the skull suggest that the discovered individual was youthful or subadult when he died. In life, this animal would have been about 10 meters long, suggesting that adults became much larger.
“The discovery of Jinchuanloong Niedu It enriches the diversity of the first divergent sauropods and provides additional information to help understand the evolutionary history of the Sauropods in northwestern China, ”writes the authors.
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