The "elegant" dinosaur with a long neck is the "last survivor" spanning two eras

Editor's note: In the long history of life on Earth, dinosaurs were once the dominant species on Earth. In 1995, a young farmer dug up the world's largest Jurassic dinosaur cemetery at Dinosaur Mountain in Chuanjie, Lufeng, Chuxiong, Yunnan. The cemetery covers an area of ​​10,000 square meters and contains dinosaur fossils and associated animal fossils from the early, middle and late Jurassic periods. This is a real "Jurassic World" that existed between 190 million and 140 million years ago.

The Yunnan learning platform of "Study to Make China Strong" jointly with the Chuxiong learning platform of "Study to Make China Strong" and Lufeng Media launched the "Dinosaur Research Institute" series of planning, taking you into the "Jurassic World" to explore the past and present lives of dinosaurs.

The Yunnanosaurus huang's fossil was discovered in 1939 by Yang Zhongjian, Bian Meinian and others in Huangjiatian, Jinshan Town, Lufeng City, Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture, Yunnan Province. The fossil was found in the Zhangjiawa section of the Jurassic Lufeng Formation. It is the third basal sauropod dinosaur named after the Lufeng Formation.

The holotype of Yunnanosaurus huangi is a relatively complete skeleton about 4 meters long, including the head and postcranial bones, with a humerus length of 23.1 centimeters and a femur length of 43.5 centimeters. It is a medium-sized dinosaur. Through the piecemeal and research of the fossils found, experts speculate that Yunnanosaurus huangi lived in the early to middle Jurassic period, belonged to the prosauropods, and was one of the last prosauropods to survive.

Research has found that Huang's Yunnanosaurus feeds on plants, has a long skull and neck, and its forelimbs are shorter than its hind limbs. It walks on its hind feet, and its two hind legs and tail can form a "tripod" to support its body firmly on the ground.

Figure: Yunnanosaurus huang specimen (upper left: skull, upper right: cervical vertebrae, lower: skull and cervical vertebrae)

Yunnanosaurus huang's lower jaw is slightly rounded, with a small dentition and more than 60 teeth. Strangely, although it is a paleopod, its teeth look very much like those of sauropods. Not only are they similar in shape, but they are also similar in the way they are worn. Scientists believe that the teeth of Yunnanosaurus huang's teeth have evolved further than those of other protosauropods, which is likely one of the evidences for studying the origin of sauropods and paleopods.