Lufeng Formation | |
---|---|
Stratigraphic range: Hettangian-Pliensbachian ~ | |
Type | Geological formation |
Sub-units | Shawan & Zhangjia'ao Members |
Underlies | Chuanjie Formation |
Overlies | Precambrian slate basement |
Thickness | over 300 metres (980 ft) |
Lithology | |
Primary | Siltstone |
Other | Sandstone |
Location | |
Coordinates | 25°00′N102°06′E / 25.0°N 102.1°E |
Approximate paleocoordinates | 34°18′N104°36′E / 34.3°N 104.6°E |
Region | Yunnan |
Country | China |
Extent | Yunnan Basin |
The Lufeng Formation (formerly Lower Lufeng Series) is a Lower Jurassic sedimentary rock formation found in Yunnan, China. It has two units: the lower Dull Purplish Beds/Shawan Member are of Hettangian age, and Dark Red Beds/Zhangjia'ao Member are of Sinemurian age. [1] It is known for its fossils of early dinosaurs. The Dull Purplish Beds have yielded the possible therizinosaur Eshanosaurus , the possible theropod Lukousaurus , and the "prosauropods" "Gyposaurus" sinensis, Lufengosaurus , Jingshanosaurus , and Yunnanosaurus . Dinosaurs discovered in the Dark Red Beds include the theropod Sinosaurus triassicus , the "prosauropods" "Gyposaurus", Lufengosaurus, and Yunnanosaurus, indeterminate remains of sauropods, and the early armored dinosaurs Bienosaurus and Tatisaurus . [2]
Rhynchocephalians reported from the Lufeng Formation | ||||||
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Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | Notes | |
Indeterminate | Yunnan | Partial skulls and jaws. [3] | The three named species do not display any autapomorphic characters and should be considered indeterminate within the genus. Only record of rhynchocephalians from Asia. [3] |
Crurotarsans reported from the Lufeng Formation | ||||||
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Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | Notes | |
D. lufengensis [4] | Yunnan [4] | Dark Red Beds [4] | Formerly considered an ornithopod dinosaur. |
Indeterminate ornithopod remains Yunnan. Dark Red Beds. [2]
Ornithischians reported from the Lufeng Formation | ||||||
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Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | Notes | |
B. lufengensis [4] | Yunnan [4] | Dark Red Beds [4] | A right "[d]entary with teeth," [6] with additional cranial fragments such as a partial frontal. These specimens are catalogued as IVPP V 9612. The dentary preserves 11 teeth or roots with two additional empty alveoli. | |||
T. oehleri [4] | Yunnan [4] | Dark Red Beds [4] | "Isolated dentary." [6] |
Color key
| Notes Uncertain or tentative taxa are in small text; |
Sauropodomorphs reported from the Lufeng Formation | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | Notes | Images |
C. lufengensis [7] | Yunnan [7] | "Skull [7] | ||||
G. sinensis [8] | Yunnan [8] | "[Two] skeletons, [one] with partial skull, [two] partial skeletons, [three] skull fragments, adult." [10] | ||||
F. youngi [4] | Yunnan [4] |
| "Skull." [11] | |||
J. xinwaensis [9] | Yunnan [9] |
| "Complete skeleton with skull, adult." [10] | |||
"K. wusdingensis" [4] | Yunnan [4] |
| nomen nudum | |||
L. huenei [8] | Yunnan [8] | "(including Gyposaurus sinensis, L. magnus)" [2] | ||||
L. magnus [8] | Yunnan [8] | |||||
T. minor [4] | Yunnan [4] |
| ||||
Xingxiulong | X. chengi | Yunnan | ||||
Yizhousaurus [12] | Y. sunae | Yunnan | Zhangjiaao Member | Partial skeleton with skull | ||
Y. huangi [8] | Yunnan [8] | "More than [twenty] partial to complete skeletons, [two] skulls, juvenile to adult." [11] | ||||
Y. robustus [8] | Yunnan [8] |
Theropods reported from the Lower Lufeng Formation | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | Notes | Images |
E. deguchiianus [9] | Yunnan [9] |
| "Dentary." [13] | Possible therizinosaur | ||
L. yini [8] | Yunnan [8] | Possible crocodylomorph [16] | ||||
S. triassicus [8] | Yunnan [8] |
| Dilophosaurus sinensis specimen Now included in Sinosaurus | |||
Panguraptor [17] | P. lufengensis [17] | Yunnan [17] |
|
| A coelophysid |
Cynodonts reported from the Lufeng Formation | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Genus | Species | Location | Stratigraphic position | Material | Notes | Images |
Bienotherium |
| A tritylodontid | ||||
Dianzhongia | D. longirostrata | A tritylodontid | ||||
Hadrocodium [18] | H. wui [18] | Yunnan [18] |
| Skull | One of the oldest and smallest mammaliaforms known. Indicates a correlation between the separation of the middle ear bones from the mandible and the expanded brain vault in early mammals. [19] | |
Lufengia | L. delicata | A tritylodontid | ||||
Morganucodon |
| Zhangjiawa Member (M. heikuopengensis) Shawan Member (M. oehleri) | A morganucodontan | |||
Sinoconodon | S. rigneyi | Zhangjiawa Member | A mammaliamorph closely related to Mammaliaformes | |||
Yunnanodon [20] [21] | Y. brevirostre [20] | Yunnan [20] |
| A tritylodontid |
Therizinosaurs were large herbivorous theropod dinosaurs whose fossils have been found across the Middle Jurassic to Late Cretaceous deposits in Europe, Asia and North America. Various features of the forelimbs, skull and pelvis unite these finds as both theropods and maniraptorans, making them relatives of birds. The name of the representative genus, Therizinosaurus, is derived from the Greek θερίζω and σαῦρος. The older representative, Segnosaurus, is derived from the Latin sēgnis ('slow') and the Greek σαῦρος.
Hadrocodium wui is an extinct mammaliaform that lived during the Sinemurian stage of the Early Jurassic approximately 195 million years ago in the Lufeng Formation in what is now the Yunnan province in south-western China (25.2°N 102.1°E, paleocoordinates 34.3°N 104.9°E). It is considered as the closest relative of the class Mammalia.
Massospondylus was a genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic. It was described by Sir Richard Owen in 1854 from remains discovered in South Africa, and is thus one of the first dinosaurs to have been named. Fossils have since been found at other locations in South Africa, Lesotho, and Zimbabwe. Material from Arizona's Kayenta Formation, India, and Argentina has been assigned to the genus at various times, but the Arizonan and Argentinian material are now assigned to other genera.
Lufengosaurus is a genus of massospondylid dinosaur which lived during the Early Jurassic period in what is now southwestern China.
Yunnanosaurus is an extinct genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived approximately 199 to 183 million years ago in what is now the Yunnan Province, in China, for which it was named. Yunnanosaurus was a large sized, moderately-built, ground-dwelling, quadrupedal herbivore, that could also walk bipedally, and ranged in size from 7 meters (23 feet) long and 2 m (6.5 ft) high to 4 m (13 ft) high in the largest species.
Sinosaurus is an extinct genus of theropod dinosaur which lived during the Early Jurassic Period. It was a bipedal carnivore approximately 5.5 metres (18 ft) in length and 300 kilograms (660 lb) in body mass. Fossils of the animal were found at the Lufeng Formation, in the Yunnan Province of China.
Gryponyx is an extinct genus of massopod sauropodomorph known from southern Free State, central South Africa.
Gyposaurus is a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the early Jurassic of South Africa. It is usually considered to represent juveniles of other prosauropods, but "G." sinensis is regarded as a possibly valid species.
Szechuanosaurus is an extinct genus of carnivorous theropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic. Fossils referred to the genus have been found in China, Asia in the Oxfordian-?Tithonian. Its type species is based on several undiagnostic teeth from the Kuangyuan Series. Additional possible specimens of Szechuanosaurus were also reported from the Kalaza Formation, also located in China.
Tatisaurus is a genus of ornithischian dinosaur from the Early Jurassic from the Lower Lufeng Formation in Yunnan Province in China. Little is known as the remains are fragmentary. The type species is T. oehleri.
Eshanosaurus is a genus of a dinosaur from the early Jurassic Period. It is known only from a fossil partial lower jawbone, found in China. It may be a therizinosaurian, and if so the earliest known coelurosaur.
Fulengia is a dubious genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic Lufeng Formation of China.
Lukousaurus is an archosauromorph based on most of a small skull's snout, displaying distinctive lachrymal horns, found in the Early Jurassic-age Lower Lufeng Formation, Yunnan, China and was described by Chung Chien Young in 1940. The generic name refers to the Lugou Bridge, lit. “crossroads”, near Beijing, where the Sino-Japanese War started. L. yini is tentatively classified as a theropod dinosaur by some allied to ceratosaurs, by others a coelurosaur. Its skull is rather robust for its size though the teeth were described by the author as typically theropodan. Whatever Lukousaurus was, it was definitely an archosauromorph.
The Fengjiahe Formation is a geological formation in China. It dates back to the Early Jurassic, most likely to the Pliensbachian. The formation is up to 1500 metres thick and consists of "purple-red mudstone and argillaceous siltstone interbedded with gray-green and yellow-green quartz sandstone and feldspathic quartz sandstone"
The Chuanjie Formation, is a geological formation in Yunnan, China. It dates back to the Middle Jurassic. It was formerly referred to as being the lower member of the "Upper Lufeng" as opposed to the underlying "Lower Lufeng" now referred to as the Lufeng Formation. Tracks of theropods and sauropods, as well as thyreophorans are known from the formation.
Phyllodontosuchus is a genus of sphenosuchian, a type of basal crocodylomorph, the clade that comprises the crocodilians and their closest kin. It is known from a skull and jaws from Lower Jurassic rocks of Yunnan, China. Phyllodontosuchus is unusual because some of its teeth were leaf-shaped, like those of some herbivorous dinosaurs, and it does not appear to have been a strict carnivore like most other crocodylomorphs.
The Zhenzhuchong Formation is an Early Jurassic geologic formation in China. Plesiosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from its strata. Remains of the prosauropod Lufengosaurus huenei have been recovered from this formation As well as dinosaur footprints.
Chuxiongosaurus is a genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur which lived during the Early Jurassic Period. Fossils of this genus have been found in the Lower Lufeng Formation, Yunnan Province, southern China. Identified from the holotype CMY LT9401 a nearly complete skull with some similarities to Thecodontosaurus, it was described as the "first basal sauropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of China," more basal than Anchisaurus. It was named by Lü Junchang, Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, Li Tianguang and Zhong Shimin in 2010, and the type species is Chuxiongosaurus lufengensis. It is a possible junior synonym of Jingshanosaurus.
Xingxiulong is a genus of bipedal sauropodiform from the Early Jurassic of China. It contains a single species, X. chengi, described by Wang et al. in 2017 from three specimens, two adults and an immature individual, that collectively constitute a mostly complete skeleton. Adults of the genus measured 4–5 metres (13–16 ft) long and 1–1.5 metres tall. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that Xingxiulong is most closely related to its contemporary Jingshanosaurus, although an alternative position outside of both the Sauropodiformes and Massospondylidae is also plausible.
Shuangbaisaurus is genus of theropod dinosaur, possibly a junior synonym of Sinosaurus. It lived in the Early Jurassic of Yunnan Province, China, and is represented by a single species, S. anlongbaoensis, known from a partial skull. Like the theropods Dilophosaurus and Sinosaurus,Shuangbaisaurus bore a pair of thin, midline crests on its skull. Unusually, these crests extended backwards over the level of the eyes, which, along with the unusual orientation of the jugal bone, led the describers to name it as a new genus. However, Shuangbaisaurus also possesses a groove between its premaxilla and maxilla, a characteristic which has been used to characterize Sinosaurus as a genus. Among the two morphotypes present within the genus Sinosaurus, Shuangbaisaurus more closely resembles the morphotype that is variably treated as a distinct species, S. sinensis, in its relatively tall skull.