China's First Turiasaurian Sauropod: Yantaloong lini

Publication Info:

Transcript:

Xiao-Qin Zhang et al. 2026. The first turiasaurian sauropod (Dinosauria: Eusauropoda) from East Asia. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 206 (2): zlaf201; doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlaf201

Meet Yantaloong lini, the new sauropod dinosaur discovered earlier this year that could be changing what paleontologists know about entire branches of the sauropod family tree!

Episode 322

Notes:

This group of dinosaurs was just discovered in China for the first time ever. So, you know what sauropods are? Long neck, long tail, big, like really big, like the largest animals to ever walk on our planet. Well, there's a special and somewhat controversial group of sauropods called the Turiasaurians. It was originally named in 2006 and has been controversial pretty much since 2008. That said, for the moment, the clade still exists. They're relatively small eusauropods from Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous Europe, North America, and Africa. And now, for the first time ever, baby from China, too. This is Yantaloong lini, and according to researchers, it could be the first fossil found in China that acts as a transitional fossil between mamenchisaurids and the later neosauropods. Some analyses of the fossil place it a little differently, potentially outside of Turiasauria or even inside neosauropod up, but the authors say that that's far less likely. So, for the time being, paleontologists were able to get a pretty amazing amount of information just out of six pre-sacral vertebrae. And hopefully in the future, more specimens will be found to kind of clear up its position in the sauropod family tree. As usual, if you want more information, here's the source.