Do you prefer the clarity of Chuanjiesaurus, or the warmer sound of Analong? Analong is the skeleton on the right, in blue. Picture is presented under fair use, from Sekiya 2011.

Do you prefer the clarity of Chuanjiesaurus, or the warmer sound of Analong?

Analong is the skeleton on the right, in blue.

2020 has started off as the year of saurischia: all the new dinosaurs described and published this year have either belonged to theropoda or sauropodomorpha. April has added two more members of the sauropod line to the burgeoning list of dinosaur diversity. Since both papers remain behind pay walls for the moment and their details aren’t generally accessible, I’ve decided to combine both findings into one Factoid.

Analong

Kholumolumo

Paleontology Newsflash Analong chuanjieensis and Kholumolumo ellenbergerorum img

Kholumolumo grew 50% longer than Massospondylus, though, and that is pretty impressive for a bipedal sauropodomorph.

Ren, X. X., Sekiya, T., Wang, T., Yang, Z. W., & You, H. L. (2020). A revision of the referred specimen of Chuanjiesaurus anaensis Fang et al., 2000: a new early branching mamenchisaurid sauropod from the Middle Jurassic of China. Historical Biology, 1-16.

Sekiya, T. (2011). Re-examination of Chuanjiesaurus anaensis (Dinosauria: sauropoda) from the middle jurassic chuanjie formation, Lufeng County, Yunnan Province, southwest China. Memoir of the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum, 10, 1-54.

Mannion, P. D., Upchurch, P., Schwarz, D., & Wings, O. (2019). Taxonomic affinities of the putative titanosaurs from the Late Jurassic Tendaguru Formation of Tanzania: phylogenetic and biogeographic implications for eusauropod dinosaur evolution. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 185(3), 784-909.

YANG, Z. J. (1954). On a new sauropod from Yiping, Szechuan, China. Scientia sinica, 3(4), 491-504.

http://wondersofyunnan.com/blog/posts/lufeng-world-dinosaur-valley

Peyre de Fabrègues, C., & Allain, R. (2020). Kholumolumo ellenbergerorum, gen. et sp. nov., a new early sauropodomorph from the lower Elliot Formation (Upper Triassic) of Maphutseng, Lesotho. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, e1732996.

Peyre de Fabrègues, C., & Allain, R. (2020) supplemental material

Seebacher, F. (2001). A new method to calculate allometric length-mass relationships of dinosaurs. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 21(1), 51-60.

Marsh, A. D., & Rowe, T. B. (2018). Anatomy and systematics of the sauropodomorph Sarahsaurus aurifontanalis from the Early Jurassic Kayenta Formation. PloS one, 13(10).

Wang, Y. M., You, H. L., & Wang, T. (2017). A new basal sauropodiform dinosaur from the Lower Jurassic of Yunnan Province, China. Scientific reports, 7, 41881.