Wang Ya-Ming, Zhang Qian-Nan, Wang Yan-Chao, Xu Huan, Chen Jianbo, Feng Zhuo, Xu Xing, Wang Tao, You Hai-Lu
The Geological Museum of China, Beijing, 100034, China.
Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100044, China.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jul 23;15(1):26749. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-12185-2.
A new dinosaur assemblage from the Lower Jurassic at Wande Town, Wuding County, Yunnan Province, China is discovered recently. Here a new sauropodomorph from this site, Wudingloong wui gen. et sp. nov., is described on the basis of a partial skeleton. Wudingloong is different from other non-sauropodiform sauropodomorphs particularly in having an ascending ramus of the maxilla excavated by triangular antorbital fossa, distinct ventral keel on the middle cervical centra, a slender humerus with a flat and low humeral head, a gracile metacarpal V with the proximal end as wide as the distal end, and a large and robust ungual of manual digit I. Wudingloong was excavated from the lowest Lower Jurassic Yubacun Formation, which is the lowest dinosaur bone bed in East Asia. Both the phylogenetic analysis and stratigraphic horizon indicate that Wudingloong represents the earliest-diverging and stratigraphically oldest sauropodomorph dinosaur discovered in East Asia so far. The discovery of this new taxon provides further evidence that the southwestern China sauropodomorph assemblage is one of the most taxonomically diverse and morphologically disparate in the pre-Toarcian Early Jurassic worldwide, represented by various taxa from near the base of the Massopoda to non-sauropodan sauropodiforms.
最近在中国云南省武定县万德镇下侏罗统发现了一个新的恐龙组合。在此，基于一具部分骨骼化石，对该地点的一种新的蜥脚形亚目恐龙——武定云南龙（Wudingloong wui gen. et sp. nov.）进行了描述。武定云南龙与其他非蜥脚类蜥脚形亚目恐龙不同，特别是其上颌骨上升支被三角形眶前窝所挖掘，中颈椎椎体有明显的腹侧龙骨突，肱骨细长且肱骨头扁平低矮，第五掌骨纤细，近端与远端宽度相同，以及第一指爪大而粗壮。武定云南龙是从下侏罗统最底部的雨巴村组挖掘出来的，该组是东亚地区最低的恐龙骨床。系统发育分析和地层层面都表明，武定云南龙代表了迄今为止在东亚发现的最早分化且地层最古老的蜥脚形亚目恐龙。这一新类群的发现进一步证明，中国西南部的蜥脚形亚目恐龙组合是全球早托阿尔期早期侏罗世分类学上最多样化、形态上最具差异的组合之一，由从巨脚龙基部附近到非蜥脚类蜥脚形亚目的各种类群代表。
