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A new early branching armored dinosaur from the Lower Jurassic of southwestern China

A new early branching armored dinosaur from the Lower Jurassic of southwestern China

Authors :
Xi Yao
Paul M Barrett
Lei Yang
Xing Xu
Shundong Bi
Source :
eLife, Vol 11 (2022)
Publication Year :
2022
Publisher :
eLife Sciences Publications Ltd, 2022.

Abstract

The early evolutionary history of the armored dinosaurs (Thyreophora) is obscured by their patchily distributed fossil record and by conflicting views on the relationships of Early Jurassic taxa. Here, we describe an early diverging thyreophoran from the Lower Jurassic Fengjiahe Formation of Yunnan Province, China, on the basis of an associated partial skeleton that includes skull, axial, limb, and armor elements. It can be diagnosed as a new taxon based on numerous cranial and postcranial autapomorphies and is further distinguished from all other thyreophorans by a unique combination of character states. Although the robust postcranium is similar to that of more deeply nested ankylosaurs and stegosaurs, phylogenetic analysis recovers it as either the sister taxon of Emausaurus or of the clade Scelidosaurus+ Eurypoda. This new taxon, Yuxisaurus kopchicki, represents the first valid thyreophoran dinosaur to be described from the Early Jurassic of Asia and confirms the rapid geographic spread and diversification of the clade after its first appearance in the Hettangian. Its heavy build and distinctive armor also hint at previously unrealized morphological diversity early in the clade’s history.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
2050084X
Volume :
11
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
eLife
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.3a835a0aaa864bf2bde7217128ae098d
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.75248