Paleontologists have identified Yantaloong lini, a new species of sauropod dinosaur from southern China that may represent the first turiasaurian sauropod discovered in East Asia.
Yantaloong lini lived during the Middle Jurassic epoch, approximately 174 to 161 million years ago.
The newly described dinosaur likely belonged to Turiasauria, a group of massive, long-necked sauropods that lived from the Early Jurassic through the Early Cretaceous.
The evolutionary history and internal relationships of turiasaurs remain debated among paleontologists.
“Turiasauria were originally defined in 2006 as all Eusauropoda closer to Turiasaurus riodevensis than to Saltasaurus loricatus, forming a monophyletic group outside the Neosauropoda,” said Dr. Ya-Ming Wang of the Geological Museum of China and his colleagues.
“Although the monophyly of Turiasauria was questioned in 2009, subsequent studies have supported the group as a valid clade.”
“However, the exact composition and evolutionary relationships of Turiasauria remain uncertain and continue to be revised.”
Before this discovery, turiasaurs had been identified in rocks dating from the Lower Jurassic to the Lower Cretaceous in Europe, North America, Africa, and India.
The researchers identified Yantaloong lini from six presacral vertebrae discovered in the Zhanghe Formation of Yunnan province, China.
“The Middle Jurassic dinosaur fauna of China is dominated by mamenchisaurid sauropods, along with several early-diverging eusauropod and neosauropod dinosaurs,” the scientists said.
“Despite this diversity, no transitional species had previously been confirmed in East Asia along the evolutionary pathway from mamenchisaurids to neosauropods.”
According to the researchers, Yantaloong lini may help fill this important gap in the sauropod fossil record.
In most of the team’s phylogenetic analyses, the new species was recovered within an unconventional version of Turiasauria. This grouping also includes the genera Lapparentosaurus, Jobaria, and Atlasaurus.
Some alternative analyses placed Yantaloong lini outside the traditional turiasaurian group or within Neosauropoda. However, the authors consider these possibilities less likely.
Anatomically, Yantaloong lini displays a combination of primitive and advanced features. Its vertebrae possess characteristics associated with dicraeosaurines and titanosaurs, as well as more ancestral traits seen in early eusauropods.
“Yantaloong lini improves our understanding of vertebral diversity in sauropod dinosaurs, including vertebral pneumatization and the hyposphene-hypantrum complex,” the paleontologists concluded.
“These features further support its possible position as a transitional form on the evolutionary path toward Neosauropoda.”
“The new species probably represents the first turiasaurian sauropod discovered in China and possibly in all of East Asia.”
The discovery of Yantaloong lini is described in a paper published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.
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Xiao-Qin Zhang et al. 2026. The first turiasaurian sauropod (Dinosauria: Eusauropoda) from East Asia. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 206 (2): zlaf201; doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf201
Source: www.sci.news