Klamelisaurus

Klamelisaurus
Temporal range: Middle Jurassic, 174–163 Ma
Skeleton cast
Scientific classification
Kingdom:Animalia
Phylum:Chordata
Clade:Dinosauria
Order:Saurischia
Suborder:†Sauropodomorpha
Clade:†Sauropoda
Clade:†Eusauropoda
Genus:†Klamelisaurus
Zhao, 1993
Species
  • †K. gobiensis Zhao, 1993

Klamelisaurus is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of China.

Discovery

Artist impression of Klamelisaurus in a conifer forest

The type species Klamelisaurus gobiensis was named and described by Zhao Xijin in 1993. The generic name refers to Kelamaili, of which "Klameli" is a spelling variant, where remains were found north of Jiangjunmiao in the Junggar Basin of Xinjiang province, in 1982. The specific name refers to the Gobi.[1]

The holotype, IVPP V9492, was found in a layer of the Shishugou Formation dating from the Oxfordian, about 160 million years old. It consists of a partial skeleton lacking the skull. The postcranial skeleton is rather complete, missing only the front part of the neck, the left shoulder girdle, the left forelimb and the feet.[1] The quality of the bones was poor and deteriorated during preparation.

Description

Klamelisaurus was a medium-sized sauropod. In 2010, Gregory S. Paul estimated its length at fifteen metres, its weight at five tonnes, at the same time presuming it represented the adult form of Bellusaurus.[2] In their osteological description of Bellusaurus, Moore et al. (2018) refuted the possible synonymy of Klamelisaurus and Bellusaurus by pointing to the slightly older age of the former and non-ontogenetic differences between the two genera.[3]

Zhao in 1993 established a single explicit autapomorphy: the upper end of the ulna is expanded.[1]

In 1993 Klamelisaurus was assigned to the Bothrosauropodea. Zhao named a new subfamily, Klamelisaurinae, to include Klamelisaurus was the only member.[1] It was considered of uncertain classification by Upchurch et al. (2004), possibly being a non-neosauropod eusauropod.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Zhao Xijing (1993). "A new Mid-Jurassic sauropod (Klamelisaurus gobiensis gen. et sp. nov.) from Xinjiang, China" (PDF). Vertebrata PalAsiatica. 31 (2): 132–138.
  2. ↑ Paul, G.S., 2010, The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs, Princeton University Press p. 178
  3. ↑ Moore AJ, Mo J, Clark JM, Xu X. (2018) Cranial anatomy of Bellusaurus sui (Dinosauria: Eusauropoda) from the Middle-Late Jurassic Shishugou Formation of northwest China and a review of sauropod cranial ontogeny. PeerJ 6:e4881 https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.4881
  4. ↑ P. Upchurch, P. M. Barrett, and P. Dodson. 2004. Sauropoda. In D. B. Weishampel, H. Osmolska, and P. Dodson (eds.), The Dinosauria (2nd edition). University of California Press, Berkeley 259-322


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.