Fulengia
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| Fulengia Temporal range: Early Jurassic, | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Massopoda |
| Genus: | †Fulengia Carroll and Galton, 1977 |
| Species: | †F. youngi |
| Binomial name | |
| †Fulengia youngi Carroll and Galton, 1977 | |
Fulengia is a dubious genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic Lufeng Formation of China.[1]
The type species, F. youngi, was described by Carroll and Galton in 1977.[2] It is a nomen dubium, and may be the same animal as Lufengosaurus (from which it is anagramized). It was originally thought to be a lizard.
History[edit]
The holotype of Fulengia (CUP 2037), a mineralised lump containing a small skull, just under 4 centimetres (1.6 in) long, a single vertebra, and a jumble of unidentifiable bones, was originally catalogued as a juvenile specimen of Yunnanosaurus huangi by Simmons in 1965,[3] who reckoned they were "coprolitic in origin", but there is no way to accurately prove this.[3] Twelve years later Carroll and Galton reclassified it as a lizard of Late Triassic age and named the species Fulengia youngi.[2]
The holotype remains, and two other nodules (CUP 2038a and CUP 2038b)[4] from the same site were also found during reinspection of the Catholic University of Peking collections in 1989.[5] In 1989, Evans and Milner classified Fulengia as an Early Jurassic sauropodomorph.[5]
Description[edit]
It was around 6.2 metres (20 ft) long and around 600 kilograms (1,300 lb) in weight when fully grown.[6] Its height was unknown,[6] and it had a skull size of around 4 centimetres (1.6 in) long.[3]
References[edit]
- ^ "48.3 Yunnan, People's Republic of China; 2. Dark Red Beds of the Lower Lufeng Series," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 534.
- ^ a b Carroll, R.L. and Galton, P.M. (1977) "A 'modern' lizard from the Upper Triassic of China".
- ^ a b c Simmons, D.J. (1965) "The non-therapsid reptiles of the Lufeng Basin, Yunnan, China".
- ^ R. L. Carroll. 1988. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution 1-698
- ^ a b S.E. Evans and A.R. Milner (1989) "Fulengia, a supposed early lizard reinterpreted as a prosauropod dinosaur".
- ^ a b Yang, Z. (1982b). On a new genus of dinosaur from Lufeng, Yunnan. Selected works of Yang, Z. p. 38-42. Science Press, Beijing (中文).
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