Paleontologists have found what they are saying is a brand new species of early-diverging neornithischian dinosaur that was a part of the Jurassic Yanliao Biota in northern China.
The skeleton of Pulaosaurus qinglong in left lateral view. Picture credit score: Hailong Zhang.
Named Pulaosaurus qinglong, the newly-identified dinosaur species lived in what’s now China through the Jurassic interval, round 160 million years in the past.
The traditional reptile was a part of the so-called Yanliao Biota, a Center-to-Late Jurassic-aged ecosystem that included dinosaurs, mammals, amphibians, bugs and lizards, in addition to crops.
“The Yanliao Biota is likely one of the most vital Mesozoic, terrestrial lagerstätte in China, with an age that ranges from 168 to 157 million years and is comprised of fossil assemblages from the Jiulongshan and the Tiaojishan Formations,” mentioned senior writer Dr. Xing Xu, a paleontologist with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology on the Chinese language Academy of Sciences and Yunnan College, and colleagues.
“In whole, there have been 54 genera and 58 species of vertebrates reported from the Yanliao Biota, together with 9 species of non-avian dinosaurs.”
“As a result of the Yanliao Biota preserves giant quantities of vertebrate materials from many species, it presents perception to main paleobiological occasions, such because the temporal origin of birds and the early evolution of mammals.”
“Nevertheless, non-avian dinosaurs discovered within the Yanliao Biota are all small-bodied theropods whereas Ornithischia is represented by just one species, which can probably be from the Jehol Biota.”
“That is in stark distinction to different contemporaneous Chinese language terrestrial faunas such because the Shishugou and Shaximiao faunas the place physique dimension and taxonomic composition are extra variable.”
Pulaosaurus qinglong belongs to Neornithischia (new ornithischians), a gaggle of dinosaurs with the order Ornithischia.
First established in 1985, neornithischians had a thicker layer of asymmetrical enamel on the within of their decrease tooth.
“Neornithischia is a major group of dinosaurs whose earliest origin could also be dated again to the Center Jurassic, represented by a number of early-diverging species together with Sanxiasaurus, Agilisaurus, Hexinlusaurus present in China,” the paleontologists mentioned.
“Moreover China, there have been stories of neornithischian fossils from the Center Jurassic of Japanese Europe, Scotland and layers from different geological occasions and international locations.”
“Neornithischia diverges quickly into quite a lot of species within the Cretaceous interval.”
The well-preserved specimen of Pulaosaurus qinglong was discovered within the Tiaojishan Formation of Qinglong in China’s Hebei province.
“The fossil is comprised of a virtually full skeleton ready on a brownish-red sandstone slab,” the researchers mentioned.
“The specimen preserves a lot of the cranium and a whole postcranial skeleton.”
In keeping with the scientists, Pulaosaurus qinglong was a small-bodied neornthischian.
“The whole size of this specimen is roughly 72.2 cm (i.e., the size from the rostral finish of the cranium to the caudal finish of the final preserved caudal vertebrate) whereas its cranium size is about 8 cm,” they mentioned.
The invention of the brand new species sheds new mild on the biodiversity of Yanliao Biota and the phylogeny of early-diverging neornithischians.
“A phylogenetic evaluation locations Pulaosaurus qinglong on the base of Neornithischia near Agilisaurus, which is the earliest-diverging neornithischian,” the authors mentioned.
“The brand new species represents the primary neornithischian discovered within the Yanliao Biota, and helps to fill the temporal and geographical hole within the distribution of Neornithischia inside China.”
“A pair of arytenoids are preserved within the Pulaosaurus qinglong holotype and represents the second case of an ossified laryngeal equipment amongst non-avian dinosaurs.”
“The arytenoids of Pulaosaurus qinglong signifies that ossified laryngeal apparatuses have been current in Neornithischia, thus suggesting that the ossified laryngeal equipment could possibly be widespread throughout Dinosauria.”
“Because the morphology of Pulaosaurus qinglong arytenoids resembles the arytenoids of extant birds, it’s potential for the brand new species to have an avian-like vocalization.”
The invention of Pulaosaurus qinglong is reported in a paper within the journal PeerJ.
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Y. Yang et al. 2025. A brand new neornithischian dinosaur from the Higher Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation of northern China. PeerJ 13: e19664; doi: 10.7717/peerj.19664
