Yanbeilong

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Yanbeilong
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, Albian
Yanbeilong Skeletal.svg
Skeletal reconstruction
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade:† Ornithischia
Clade:† Thyreophora
Clade:† Stegosauria
Family:† Stegosauridae
Subfamily:† Stegosaurinae
Genus:† Yanbeilong
Jia et al., 2024
Species:
†Y. ultimus
Binomial name
†Yanbeilong ultimus
Jia et al., 2024

Yanbeilong (meaning "north of Yanmen Pass dragon") is an extinct genus of stegosaurian dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous (Albian age) Zuoyun Formation of Shanxi, China. The genus contains a single species, Yanbeilong ultimus, known from a single partial skeleton including several vertebrae and the pelvic girdle. It is one of the youngest known stegosaurs, alongside Mongolostegus from Mongolia and unnamed stegosaurine remains from the Hekou Group of China, both of which date to the Aptian–Albian ages. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Discovery and naming

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Map of China with Zuoyun County indicated (near the Yanbeilong type locality)
Speculative life restoration Yanbeilong ultimus.png
Speculative life restoration

The Yanbeilong holotype specimen, SXMG V 00006, was discovered in 2011 in sediments of the Zuoyun Formation near Madaotou Township in Zuoyun County of Datong City, Shanxi Province, China. [4] The specimen consists of the sacrum, both ilia, the left ischium, right pubis, seven dorsal vertebrae (two of which were isolated, the other five found in association with the ilio-sacral block), and a caudal vertebra. [1]

In 2024, Lei Jia and colleagues described Yanbeilong ultimus as a new genus and species of stegosaur based on these fossil remains. The generic name, "Yanbeilong", combines the Chinese "Yanbei", meaning "North of Yanmen Pass"—referencing the general area of the type locality—and "long", meaning "dragon". The specific name, "ultimus", is a Latin word meaning "last", referencing the fact that this taxon represents a late-surviving member of the stegosaur lineage. [1]

Classification

In their phylogenetic analyses, Jia et al. (2024) recovered Yanbeilong as a deeply-nested member of the Stegosauria, as the sister taxon to a clade containing Stegosaurus stenops and Wuerhosaurus . [1] An updated and more comprehensive analysis published the following year recovered similar results, with Yanbeilong as the sister taxon to Wuerhosaurus, in a Chinese clade within the Stegosaurinae also containing Jiangjunosaurus and an unnamed taxon from the Hekou Group. These results are shown in the cladogram below: [5]

Stegosauria

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Jia, Lei; Li, Ning; Dong, Liyang; Shi, Jianru; Kang, Zhishuai; Wang, Suozhu; Xu, Shichao; You, Hailu (2024-01-31). "A new stegosaur from the late Early Cretaceous of Zuoyun, Shanxi Province, China". Historical Biology . 37 (2): 420–429. doi:10.1080/08912963.2024.2308214. ISSN   0891-2963.
  2. ↑ Tumanova, T. A.; Alifanov, V. R. (2018-12-01). "First Record of Stegosaur (Ornithischia, Dinosauria) from the Aptian–Albian of Mongolia" . Paleontological Journal. 52 (14): 1771–1779. Bibcode:2018PalJ...52.1771T. doi:10.1134/S0031030118140186. ISSN   1555-6174. S2CID   91559457.
  3. ↑ Li, Ning; Li, Daqing; Peng, Guangzhao; You, Hailu (2024). "The first stegosaurian dinosaur from Gansu Province, China" . Cretaceous Research . 158 (in press). 105852. Bibcode:2024CrRes.15805852L. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2024.105852. S2CID   267286799.
  4. ↑ Dong, Liyang; Yi, Jian; Liu, Yingchao; Xu, Shichao; Wang, Suozhu; Zhang, Cai (2018-03-24). "山西左云地区下白垩统左云组沉积相及其古气候意义" [Sedimentary Facies of Lower Cretaceous Zuoyun Formation and Paleoclimate of Early Cretaceous]. Geological Review (in Chinese). 64 (2): 392–404. doi:10.16509/j.georeview.2018.02.007. ISSN   0371-5736.
  5. ↑ Sánchez-Fenollosa, Sergio; Cobos, Alberto (2025). "New insights into the phylogeny and skull evolution of stegosaurian dinosaurs: An extraordinary cranium from the European Late Jurassic (Dinosauria: Stegosauria)". Vertebrate Zoology. 75: 147–171. doi: 10.3897/vz.75.e146618 .
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