Huge dinosaur skull reveals previously unknown species

A huge dinosaur skull found in southern China appears to belong to an entirely new species, according to a group of paleontologists who studied the specimen.

The fossilized skull was found by paleontologists in the Lufeng Dinosaur National Geopark in Yunnan Province, China. The group determined that the skull belonged to a sauropod, a group of dinosaurs that also included giant herbivorous sauropods such as Brachiosaurus– albeit completely new to the scientific record.

The research team named the animal Lishoulong Wangji– “Lishu” from the Chinese spelling for chestnut tree, “long” referring to a dragon, and “wanji” after a vertebrate paleontologist of the same name.

The team believes so Lishoulong Wangji It may have reached 33 feet (10 m) in length. The team’s findings were published Last month in Berg.

“Based on current fossil records, Lishoulong Wangji “It is the largest sauropodomorph from the Early Jurassic period in China, and is considered morphologically mature,” the team wrote in the paper.

The team added that the animal had the largest skull of sauropods known from the Lufeng Formation, suggesting that researchers may need to revisit relevant details to better understand the size of animals in the group.

Zhang said Live Science The large dinosaur was probably a herbivore, and can be distinguished from its sister class.Jonahosaurus– Through her larger nostrils. The animal’s fossilized skull is about 15.75 inches (40 cm) long, surpassing the previously largest skull in the area (which belonged to… Jingchanosaurus sample) about 2 inches (5 cm).

The large skull is just the latest find from China. In 2023, a team revealed… Huge fossil From a mammal that apparently preyed on a beaked dinosaur; The previous year, a group of paleontologists Published evidence On the contrary, it is shaped like the foot of a mammal inside a fossil Microraptor.

In 2021, paleontologists published several fossil finds from the country, including Remains of a nesting oviraptor (complete with fossilized dinosaur eggs), the amazing remains of A Dinosaur cloacaand 500 million year old penis worms From Yunnan, the same province where paleontologists discovered it L and Angie.

The team proposed that discovery L and Angie It could provide insight into how widespread this animal and its closest dinosaur relatives were across Earth’s ancient supercontinent.

“The ancient biodiversity of early sauropodomorphs from Gondwana appears to decline marginally after the Triassic-Jurassic boundary,” the researchers wrote. “Therefore, we hypothesize that non-sauropodomorph genera survived and spread rapidly in Laurasia, especially China.” In other words, early sauropods declined in Gondwana, but flourished and diversified in Laurasia, especially China.

Nevertheless Lishoulong Wangji Not as big as some really Huge sauropods Like titanosaurs, the animal still blows modern land animals out of the ground water Eh, Earth. The newly described fossil is now on display at the Lufeng World Dinosaur Valley Museum.