The first mamenchisaurid from the Upper Jurassic Dongxing Formation of Guangxi, southernmost China

ABSTRACT

A new mamenchisaurid sauropod dinosaur, Jingia dongxingensis gen. et sp. nov. from the Upper Jurassic of Southernmost China is reported here. The holotype consists of partly preserved dorsal, sacral, and caudal vertebrae, left and right ulna, and right femur. Anatomical comparison and phylogenetic analysis indicate that the new taxon belongs to Mamenchisauridae and bears a unique combination of characteristics, such as the ratio of the length of the neural spine to the narrowest width of the neural arch of the dorsal vertebra is about 4.4; sacral centrum is opisthocoelous with shallow depression exists on the lateral surface; centrum of anterior caudal vertebrae are amphicoelous, and the articular surfaces are transversely compressed; the anterolateral and anteromedial processes of the ulna are generally perpendicular in proximal view. Phylogenetically, Jingia dongxingensis gen. et sp. nov. is located at the later diverged position in Mamenchisauridae. This discovery increases the diversity of Mamenchisauridae and provides additional information to help understand the evolutionary radiation of eusauropods in China. It also indicates that this lineage is more competitive than penecontemporaneous neosauropods to dominate the Late Jurassic of East Asia.

KEYWORDS:

• Sauropoda
• Mamenchisauridae
• Upper Jurassic
• Dongxing Formation

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to two thoughtful anonymous reviewers and the editor significantly improved the manuscript. For their hospitality and strong support and assistance in the process of fossil restoration and research, we wish to thank the China Geological Survey (Grant No. DD20230221), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42102018), and the Youth Talent Programme of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (Grant No. JKYQN202320). We want to give our thanks to the Department of Natural Resources of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and the Dongxing Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources for the financial support (GXZC2022-C3 -001314-GXCJ). We are also grateful to the Chongzhou Tianyan Museum for the restoration of the specimen.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2024.2309287.

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The electronic version of this article in Portable Document Format (PDF) will represent a published work according to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN), and hence the new names contained in the electronic version are effectively published under that Code from the electronic edition alone. This published work and the nomenclatural acts it contains have been registered in ZooBank, the online registration system for the ICZN. The ZooBank LSIDs (Life Science Identifiers) can be resolved and the associated information viewed through any standard web browser by appending the LSID to the prefix http://zoobank.org/. The LSID for this publication is urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:C3593D4B-5642-49D1-B4E8-8D8BE9704EE3.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the financial support of the China Geological Survey [DD20230221]; the National Natural Science Foundation of China [42102018]; the Youth Talent Programme of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences [JKYQN202320]; the Department of Natural Resources of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region [GXZC2022-C3-001314-GXCJ].