Giant Dinosaur Skull Reveals Previously Unknown Species

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

Paleontologists have found a fossilized skull in the Lufeng Dinosaur National Geopark in Yunnan Province, China. The team determined that the skull belongs to the sauropodomorph – a group of dinosaurs. Brachiosaurus– although completely new to the scientific record.

The research team named the animal Lishulong is fragrant—”lishu” from the Chinese spelling of the chestnut tree, “long” for the dragon, and “wangi” after the vertebrate paleontologist of the same name.

The team believes in it Lishulong is fragrant it can grow up to 33 feet (10 meters) in length. These were the team’s findings has been published last month PeerJ.

“Based on the available fossil record, Lishulong is fragrant 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 has the largest skull of any known sauropodomorph from the Lufeng Formation, suggesting that researchers may need to reexamine associated features to better understand the size of animals in the group.

Zhang said LiveScience that the large dinosaur was likely a herbivore and could be distinguished from its sister taxonYunnosaurus– with larger nostrils. The animal’s fossilized skull is about 15.75 inches (40 centimeters) long, beating the previous largest skull in the region. Jingshanosaurus sample) about two inches (5 cm).

The large skull is the latest discovery from China. In 2023, a team discovered a magnificent fossil of a mammal hunting a beaked dinosaur; The previous year, a group of paleontologists evidence has been published rather, in the form of a fossilized mammal leg 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 penile worms Yunnan, from the same province where paleontologists discovered it L. fragrant.

He suggested the discovery of the group L. fragrant may offer insights into the distribution of the animal and its closest dinosaur relatives across Earth’s ancient supercontinent.

“Paleobiodiversity of early sauropodomorphs from Gondwana declines slightly after the Triassic-Jurassic boundary,” the researchers said. “Therefore, we hypothesize that a non-sauropodan sauropodomorph lineage survived and rapidly radiated in Laurasia, particularly in China.” In other words, early sauropodomorphs declined in Gondwana but flourished and diversified in Laurasia, especially in China.

Although Lishulong is fragrant not as big as some massive sauropods animals like titanosaurs still blow away modern land animals water e, land. The newly described fossil is now on display at the Lufeng World Dinosaur Valley museum.