Paleontologists working in southern China have identified a new species of sauropod dinosaur that appears to belong to a group never before documented anywhere in East Asia.<\/p>\n
An artist\u2019s impression of Yantaloong lini. Image credit: TotalDino \/ CC BY 4.0.<\/p>\n
Yantaloong lini roamed our planet during the Middle Jurassic epoch, between 174 and 161 million years ago.<\/p>\n
The ancient species likely belongs to Turiasauria, a clade of large, long-necked sauropods that flourished from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous.<\/p>\n
The evolutionary relationships within the clade remain one of the more debated topics in sauropod paleontology.<\/p>\n
\u201cTuriasauria were originally defined in 2006 as all Eusauropoda closer to Turiasaurus riodevensis than to Saltasaurus loricatus and formed a monophyletic group outside the Neosauropoda,\u201d said Dr. Ya-Ming Wang from the Geological Museum of China and colleagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough the monophyly of Turiasauria was questioned in 2009, later studies have reaffirmed Turiasauria as a valid clade.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNevertheless, the internal composition of this group remains uncertain and subject to ongoing revision.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil now, Turiasauria have been found from the Lower Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous of Europe, North America, Africa, and India.\u201d<\/p>\n
The researchers identified Yantaloong lini from six presacral vertebrae found in the Zhanghe Formation in China\u2019s Yunnan province.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Middle Jurassic of China hosts a diverse dinosaur fauna dominated by mamenchisaurid sauropods, along with some early diverging eusauropod and neosauropod members,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, no transitional species have been confirmed in East Asia along the evolutionary path from mamenchisaurids to neosauropods.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yantaloong lini, according to the scientists, may fill this gap.<\/p>\n
In most of the team\u2019s phylogenetic analyses, the species landed inside an unconventional version of Turiasauria, a clade that includes Lapparentosaurus, Jobaria, and Atlasaurus genera.<\/p>\n
A few alternative analyses placed it instead as a sauropod outside the traditional turiasaurian grouping, or even within Neosauropoda itself, though the authors consider those scenarios less likely.<\/p>\n