The Sauropods were among the greatest dinosaurs to have never trampled on the planet, and they made their trampling almost everywhere. But while paleontologists discovered fossils of species like Apatosaurus And Brachiosaur On almost all current continents, those found in China have been largely relegated to the southern and western regions of the country. The well -preserved remains of non -neosauropod eusauropods are even rare. These parents existed in the average Jurassic about 174 to 161 million years ago.
According to a recent study published in Scientific relationshipsA team led by researchers from the University of Chinese geosciences discovered a new kind of sauropod that they call Jinchuanlo Niedu. And the skull of their specimen is one of the most well preserved ever excavated.
Almost all giant long-neck dinosaurs beyond their first evolutionary forms belong to the Eusauropod clade. They finally became the only Sauropode line to survive beyond the world mass extinction event of the Jurassic, with many species evolving to compose the clade of Neosauropod. This subsequent clade includes Brachiosaur And Apatosaurus. While these new neosauropods were the majority, some non-neosauropods continued to exist through the average Jurassic. But among these, paleontologists have recovered very few well-preserved skulls, leaving large gaps in the global fossil record. Jinchuanlo NieduHowever, helps fill these missing parts.
The remains discovered in the formation of Xinhe located in the northwest of China include five articulated cervical vertebrae, 29 articulated caudal vertebrae, as well as a almost complete skull which includes its mandible. The location of the fossil mine in the sedimentary layers indicates that the dinosaur lived towards the late Bathonion of the Jurassic of the Middle – 165 to 186 million years.
After having compared their specimen with other sauropods from East Asia, the announcement of the university noted a mixture of “primitive and derived characteristics” which indicated a unique and not discovery species.
Despite its preservation, the first known Jinchuanlo Niedu The specimen does not seem to be an adult. The physiological characteristics, including the neural arches not merged in the caudal vertebrae, imply that the dinosaur was a juvenile or a subdadult at his death. But since it was already measuring almost 100 feet long, it is a quasi-certainty that Jinchuanlo Niedu has always grown in colossal proportions.
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