Jinchuanloong niedu:
A new genus and species of eusauropod dinosaur named Jinchuanloong niedu has been recently identified from a fossilized partial skeleton with a nearly complete skull found in the Chinese province of Gansu.
- It is an early-diverging member of a group of long-necked, strictly herbivorous, quadrupedal dinosaurs called Eusauropoda.
- The fossilized remains of Jinchuanloong niedu were collected from the lower part of the Xinhe Formation near Jinchang city, Gansu province, northwestern China.
- Jinchuanloong niedu roamed our planet during the Middle Jurassic period, some 165 million years ago.
- Sauropods are any member of the dinosaur subgroup Sauropoda, marked by large size, a long neck and tail, a four-legged stance, and a herbivorous diet.
- These were the largest of all dinosaurs and the largest land animals that ever lived.
- They lived from the Early Jurassic to Late Cretaceous, and have been found on all continents.
- Due to the global warming event in the late Early Jurassic, eusauropods were the only surviving sauropod lineage subsequently.
- In the Middle and Late Jurassic, the non-neosauropod, eusauropod became dominant, represented by Shunosaurus, Omeisaurus, and ‘core Mamenchisaurus-like taxa’.
