Upchurch, P;
Mannion, P;
Xu, X;
Barrett, P;
(2021)
Re-assessment of the Late Jurassic eusauropod dinosaur Hudiesaurus sinojapanorum Dong, 1997, from the Turpan Basin, China, and the evolution of hyperrobust antebrachia in sauropods.
Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology
10.1080/02724634.2021.1994414.
(In press).
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Abstract
Hudiesaurus sinojapanorum is a Late Jurassic sauropod from northwestern China that was erected on the basis of a cervicodorsal vertebra, four teeth, and a nearly complete forelimb. However, re-evaluation of this material, and comparisons with other taxa, indicate that there are few grounds for regarding these specimens as congeneric. Consequently, although we retain the vertebra as the holotype specimen of Hudiesaurus, the forelimb is assigned to a new taxon—Rhomaleopakhus turpanensis, gen. et sp. nov. The teeth previously referred to Hudiesaurus are poorly preserved but resemble those of several other ‘core Mamenchisaurus-like taxa’ (CMTs) from East Asia, such as Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum. Phylogenetic analyses confirm that Hudiesaurus is a CMT and the sister taxon of Xinjiangtitan. Despite some uniquely shared features, their large size, and close geographic provenance, Hudiesaurus and Xinjiangtitan are retained as distinct genera based on their stratigraphic separation and numerous anatomical differences. Rhomaleopakhus is also shown to be a CMT in all analyses, being most closely related to Chuanjiesaurus and Analong. We link the convergent evolution of robust antebrachia and an enlarged olecranon in CMTs, titanosaurs, and some ornithischians (e.g., ceratopsids) to a more flexed orientation of the forearm, an enhanced role for the forelimb in locomotion, and an anterior shift in the whole-body center of mass. CMTs and titanosaurs potentially converged on a feeding strategy in which the ability to increase browse height via bipedal rearing was sacrificed in return for more efficient locomotion that improved travel between patchily distributed food sources.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Re-assessment of the Late Jurassic eusauropod dinosaur Hudiesaurus sinojapanorum Dong, 1997, from the Turpan Basin, China, and the evolution of hyperrobust antebrachia in sauropods |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/02724634.2021.1994414 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2021.1994414 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2021. Paul Upchurch, Philip D. Mannion, Xing Xu, and Paul M. Barrett. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Earth Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10135460 |
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