A new mamenchisaurid sauropod from the Lower Phu Kradung Formation, Upper Jurassic of northeastern Thailand

Information from the abstract

Mamenchisauridae is a group of long-necked non-neosauropodan eusauropod dinosaurs that were abundant in East Asia during the Middle to Late Jurassic, but their diversity and geographic distribution outside China remain poorly documented. Here we describe Uragasaurus kalasinensis gen. et sp. nov., a new sauropod dinosaur from the Phu Kradung Formation of northeastern Thailand. The new taxon is based on a well-preserved anterior dorsal vertebra exhibiting a distinctive combination of characters, including a unique Y-shaped configuration formed by the intraprezygapophyseal and single intraprezygapophyseal laminae and a camellate internal pneumatic structure within the centrum revealed by computed tomography (CT). Phylogenetic analyses recover the new taxon as an early-diverging member of Mamenchisauridae. This discovery represents the first formally named mamenchisaurid from Thailand and expands the known geographic distribution of the clade in Southeast Asia. The occurrence of this taxon in the Lower part of the Phu Kradung Formation also contributes to understanding faunal succession within the unit, supports an Upper Jurassic age for the lower part of the formation, and improves understanding of sauropod diversity in Southeast Asia during the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition.

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Related topics: Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology · Evolution and Paleontology Studies · Ichthyology and Marine Biology