Author: Yu Chunyu
Edit: Xiaoqi
If you are a dinosaur fan, you must be familiar with the name Xu Xing, who is not only the person with the largest number of named dinosaur species in the world, but also in the past two decades, he has changed the dinosaur origin hypothesis of birds from a speculation to a widely accepted view in the academic community.
The idea that birds evolved from dinosaurs is now widely accepted. Image source: foxnews.com
This time, Mr. Xu's team has made new discoveries! However, this time it is not a little guy with feathers, but a behemoth with a length of twenty meters!
On July 24, a joint Chinese-British research team led by Mr. Xu reported a new species of sauropod dinosaurs from the Lingwu region of Ningxia, China, published in Nature Communication.
This dinosaur is not small, it is not only one of the earliest members of the Lianglong family reported today (about 174 million years ago), but also one of the few large dinosaur fossil specimens found in northwest China (first discovered in Ningxia).
The fossil was found in Lingwu District, Yinchuan City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China Image Source: References[1]
When you think of sauropoda, you probably think of a group of giant beasts with long necks and long tails, walking on the earth on thick limbs, harvesting all edible plants like vacuum cleaners, such as the big men in the picture below.
The big men of the sauropod dinosaur family (from left to right: Confused Dragon, Mamenxi Dragon, Tidal Dragon, Argentinosaurus, Yellow River Dragon, Puerta Dragon, Futalong Kolong, Poseidon Dragon, Alamorosaurus, Antarctica, Brachiosaurus, Ruyang Dragon) Image Source: Sameer Prehistorica
Sauropod dinosaurs have many "big names" - such as lepidosaurus, brachiosaurus, Argentinosaurus, etc., often appear in dinosaur-themed movies and popular science books. In China, many large sauropod dinosaurs have also been found, such as the Construction Mamenxi Dragon found in Sichuan, the giant Ruyang Dragon in Henan, the Yellow River Dragon in Gansu and so on.
The life history of sauropod "hunks" extended from the late Triassic to the late Cretaceous period, distributed on various continents. If some of the earlier sauropod species are removed, such as Mammonsians, the remaining new sauropods can be more easily divided into Diplodocoidea and Macronaria.
The members of the large family of Lianglong Superko include the famous Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, Supersaurus and so on. In previous studies, the taxon was discovered from the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous; the sites were found on almost all continents of the world, but only East Asia and Antarctica did not show signs of these behemoths.
However, this time, the evidence of dinosaur fossils from Lingwu, Ningxia, China, has refreshed people's understanding of the emergence time and geographical distribution of the superfamily Diplodocus.
What is so special about this dinosaur? Let's switch to the researcher's perspective and go to the fossil excavation site to find out!
One of the excavation sites of Lingwu dinosaur fossils. Image source: Xu Xing
Research on this batch of fossils began in 2005, and researchers have found dinosaur fossils that include at least 8 to 10 individuals at fossil sites — both juvenile and adult dinosaurs. A large number of vertebrae, limb bones, and two skulls have been preserved in the fossils. Dinosaur fossil sites like this, which are so large and densely distributed, are also very rare in the country.
Two researchers are measuring the shoulder blades of dinosaurs. Image source: Xu Xing
Through morphological and phylogenetic analysis, the researchers attributed these dinosaurs to diplodocoidea, Flagellicaudata, and Dicraeosauridae, making it the first new species of diplodocus superfamily found in Asia.
Fossilized dinosaur skeletons and reconstructed models found this time Image source: References[1]
In addition, through local geological dating, the researchers deduced that they lived in the Middle Jurassic period about 174 million years ago, and all other members of the Lepidocrydae found so far, such as Diplodocus, Apatosaurus and Dicraeosaurus, were found in the Late Jurassic. The emergence of this "Big Brother" can be said to have greatly advanced the origin time of the entire taxon, and it is honored to become the earliest species found in the current new sauropod dinosaur taxonomy.
Given that this group of dinosaurs appeared in Lingwu, Ningxia, and brought new surprises to people, the researchers eventually named this new dinosaur species "Lingwulong Shenqi".
Magical Spirit Martial Dragon (restored) Drawing: Zhang Zongda.
However, the magic of the Lingwu Dragon was not limited to this. It is also important for the study of the origin and spread of Lepidontosaurus and other neosqualipods.
Previous views have been that during the Early Jurassic Period, Lepidontosaurus did not reach East Asia until East Asia was isolated from other continents (the East Asian isolation hypothesis). But the discovery of the Miraculous Lingwu Dragon challenged this view — dinosaurs of the Lepizophora superfamily had appeared in East Asia at least in the Early Jurassic.
At the same time, because the magical Lingwu Dragon lived earlier than other Lianglong superfamily dinosaurs, the origin of giant sauropod dinosaurs like Lianglong was at least 15 million years earlier than previously speculated, that is, before the Pangea Continent in the early Jurassic Period had split, these giant beasts had already wandered through the major plates.
Stroll through the beam dragons of North America. Image source: Wikipedia
More than 100 million years ago, those liang dragons and confused dragons who chewed leaves in the woods of western North America would not know that they still had a "big brother" in northwest China?
To learn more about the story of the Magical Spirit Dragon, please click on today's second push - a wonderful explanation brought by Teacher Xu Xing
Author business card
bibliography:
[1] Xing Xu. et al. A new Middle Jurassic diplodocoid suggests an earlier dispersal and diversification of sauropod dinosaurs. Nature Communications. (2018)
I'm a scientist, and I'm here to do science. Welcome to forward to the circle of friends.
For more useful and interesting popular science knowledge, click on the upper right corner to follow "I am a scientist".
Like we will be more motivated.
Reprint: Please contact [email protected]
Submission: Please contact [email protected]
Give it a thumbs up~