Fulengia

Fulengia is a dubious genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic Lufeng Formation of China.[1]

Fulengia
Temporal range: Early Jurassic,
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: †Sauropodomorpha
Clade: †Massopoda
Genus: †Fulengia
Carroll and Galton, 1977
Species:
†F. youngi
Binomial name
†Fulengia youngi
Carroll and Galton, 1977

The type species, F. youngi, was described by Carroll and Galton in 1977.[2] It is a nomen dubium, and may be the same animal as Lufengosaurus (from which it is anagramized). It was originally thought to be a lizard.

History

The holotype of Fulengia (CUP 2037), a mineralised lump containing a small skull, just under 4 centimetres (1.6 in) long, a single vertebra, and a jumble of unidentifiable bones, was originally catalogued as a juvenile specimen of Yunnanosaurus huangi by Simmons in 1965,[3] who reckoned they were "coprolitic in origin", but there is no way to accurately prove this.[3] Twelve years later Carroll and Galton reclassified it as a lizard of Late Triassic age and named the species Fulengia youngi.[2]

The holotype remains, and two other nodules (CUP 2038a and CUP 2038b)[4] from the same site were also found during reinspection of the Catholic University of Peking collections in 1989.[5] In 1989, Evans and Milner classified Fulengia as an Early Jurassic sauropodomorph.[5]

Description

It was around 6.2 metres (20 ft) long and around 600 kilograms (1,300 lb) in weight when fully grown.[6] Its height was unknown,[6] and it had a skull size of around 4 centimetres (1.6 in) long.[3]

References
  1. "48.3 Yunnan, People's Republic of China; 2. Dark Red Beds of the Lower Lufeng Series," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 534.
  2. Carroll, R.L. and Galton, P.M. (1977) "A 'modern' lizard from the Upper Triassic of China".
  3. Simmons, D.J. (1965) "The non-therapsid reptiles of the Lufeng Basin, Yunnan, China".
  4. R. L. Carroll. 1988. Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution 1-698
  5. S.E. Evans and A.R. Milner (1989) "Fulengia, a supposed early lizard reinterpreted as a prosauropod dinosaur".
  6. Yang, Z. (1982b). On a new genus of dinosaur from Lufeng, Yunnan. Selected works of Yang, Z. p. 38-42. Science Press, Beijing (中文).
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