Chinese researchers discover East Asia's oldest sauropodomorph dinosaur

KUNMING -- A team of Chinese researchers has discovered a new dinosaur assemblage from the Lower Jurassic period in Wuding county, Southwest China's Yunnan province, representing the oldest sauropodomorph found in East Asia, according to a recent article published in the journal Scientific Reports.

In 2020, a previously unknown dinosaur assemblage was found in the Lower Jurassic strata at Wande township in Wuding county. The researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropologyc (IVPP), the Geological Museum of China, Yunnan University and the local natural resources bureau spent five years restoring and studying the fossils, ultimately naming the species Wudingloong.

The Wudingloong fossil consists of relatively well-preserved cranial bones, cervical and dorsal vertebrae, and forelimb bones.

Both the phylogenetic analysis and stratigraphic horizon indicate that Wudingloong represents the earliest-diverging and stratigraphically oldest sauropodomorph dinosaur discovered in East Asia so far, said You Hailu, a researcher at the IVPP.

This dinosaur dates back to the earliest period of the Early Jurassic, about 200 million years ago, You added.

Building on previous research, this study developed a novel phylogenetic character matrix.

Compared with other named sauropodomorphs in East Asia, Wudingloong is notably smaller, with smoother tooth enamel, a more slender scapula, a higher radius-to-humerus length ratio, and longer fingers, suggesting it was likely a bipedal dinosaur.

The discovery of this new taxon adds to the evidence that the sauropodomorph assemblage in southwestern China ranks among the most taxonomically diverse and morphologically varied of the Early Jurassic worldwide, according to the research article.