A bizarre Luopingsaurus dating back 244 million years has been discovered, and the DNA of dinosaur fans is in great turmoil!

In Jurassic Park, scientists used dinosaur blood from prehistoric mosquitoes frozen in amber to extract dinosaur genes and successfully resurrected the prehistoric behemoth that had been extinct for 65 million years. Today, although we cannot resurrect dinosaurs like in science fiction movies, we can still get a glimpse of biological stories of that era from ancient fossils.

Recently, a new marine reptile fossil from 244 million years ago was discovered in Luoping County, Yunnan Province. Paleontologists named it "Luopingosaurus". As soon as the news came out, many dinosaur fans' DNA was moved! Why was it named Luopingosaurus? Are they related to dinosaurs? How was the 244 million years determined? What did they eat... Don't worry! Today, let's talk about this Luopingosaurus that everyone is paying attention to.

Part 1

What is so strange about the strange Luopingsaurus?

To facilitate international communication, biological species names are usually named in Latin, consisting of two parts: the genus name and the specific epithet.

The scientific name of Luopingosaurus imparilis is Luopingosaurus imparilis. The first part is the genus name, which is translated into Chinese as Luopingosaurus. This Chinese name is named after the place of origin (Luoping, Yunnan); the second part is the specific epithet imparilis, which means strange, referring to its unique features such as more knuckle bones, pointed mouth and long snout. The advantage of naming in this way is that it is easy to remember where this species comes from and what typical characteristics it has.

Luopingsaurus is an aquatic lizard-like creature that belongs to a primitive fin-saurian family, the Pachylosauria. In terms of precise taxonomy, Luopingsaurus should be classified as a Pachylosauridae in the Pachylosauria superfamily. Pachylosauridae and Guizhousauridae are closely related and both belong to the Pachylosauria superfamily.

The holotype and sketch of the bizarre Luopingsaurus

Image source: provided by the author

However, the snout of Luopingsaurus is very long, more than half the length of the head, which is quite different from the short snout of Guizhousaurus, representing different ecological adaptations in feeding and movement. The pointed snout may have evolved to help catch prey and reduce drag when chasing fast-swimming prey.

Tomography and ventral reconstruction of the skull of the strange Luopingsaurus

Image source: provided by the author

The strange Luopingsaurus is quite similar to the previously discovered long-tailed Honghesaurus, but it is obviously different in features such as snout length, number of dorsal vertebrae, digit style of fore and hind limbs, humerus and sacral ribs.

It is worth noting that the third digit of the forelimb of Luopingsaurus has five phalanges, which helps to increase the flexibility of the paddle-like limbs to cope with the fluid dynamics exerted on the flippers when turning.

Part 2

Is Luopingsaurus a "relative" of dinosaurs?

The Age of Dinosaurs lasted from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous. The earliest pterosaurs appeared even earlier than the dinosaurs, in the late Early Triassic, but they were not the direct ancestors of the dinosaurs.

Like the dinosaurs, the pterosaurs were a very successful evolutionary lineage that continued until the end of the Cretaceous. Advanced pterosaurs, such as the plesiosaurs, lived at the same time as the dinosaurs. Pterosaurs were adapted to marine life, while dinosaurs mostly lived on land. Luopingsaurus mirabilis was a primitive early pterosaur that lived in the early Middle Triassic, before the dinosaurs.

The word "dinosaur" in the West refers to a terrifying lizard, specifically some giant reptiles with limbs, tails or wings that resemble lizards. Japanese paleontologists translate it as "恐竜", which is translated as "dinosaur" in my country. According to the traditional naming method, the suffix of the genus name of most fin dragons is also saurus (dragon), just like dinosaurs. This may be because they, like dinosaurs, evolved from lizard-like reptiles.

It can be said that the pterosaurs (including Lopinosaurus mirabilis) and dinosaurs are still somewhat "distant relatives" of the dinosaurs, but they are not the ancestors of the dinosaurs, but the "cousins" of the dinosaurs.

Phylogenetic relationships of Luopingsaurus paradoxus and other marine reptiles

Image source: provided by the author

Part 3

Grown in the ocean, not on land

According to rock sedimentology and paleontology, Luoping was in a shallow marine environment during the Triassic period. The Middle Triassic fossil assemblage found in Luoping area includes plants, invertebrates, fish and various marine reptiles, which is called Luoping Biota.

However, if we put aside other fossil studies, we can determine that the Luopingsaurus fossils themselves are marine reptiles.

This is because the morphological structure of the limbs and waist girdle of Luopingsaurus can reflect their adaptation to the water environment. The long trunk, slender humerus and fewer tail ribs show that Luopingsaurus mainly moved forward in the water through the lateral undulation of the trunk and tail, while their forelimbs and hindlimbs mainly played a role in balancing and steering.

Parts of the front and hind limbs of Luopingsaurus

Image source: provided by the author

The snout of Luopingsaurus was long with many conical teeth, which were used to prey on small fish, shrimp and some invertebrates in the Luoping biota. Compared with most other pachylophosaurids, Luopingsaurus had a longer snout and more teeth, which helped improve their efficiency in catching prey.

At the same time, by measuring the ratio of the length of the hyoid bone to the lower jaw, paleontologists found that as the tip of the snout became longer, the length of the hyoid bone of the stegosaurus relative to the lower jaw gradually decreased, which indicates that its swallowing efficiency was gradually weakening.

The discovery and research of Luopingsaurus also provides us with new information to further understand the composition, food chain and trophic level of the marine ecosystem at that time.

Part 4

How do we know that Luopingsaurus lived 244 million years ago?

The Luopingsaurus fossils are buried in marine sedimentary limestone, which is called the Guanling Formation in Luoping County. Like some invertebrates, fish and other marine reptiles found here before, the Luopingsaurus fossils are from the second section (upper section) of the Guanling Formation.

Geologists have conducted detailed research on the age of this stratum, using the decay principle of radioactive isotopes to determine the geological age. The measurement technology used is the widely used and mature uranium-lead method: the radioactive isotope uranium is unstable, it releases energy at a stable rate and gradually decays into another isotope lead. This decay rate is not affected by external factors and remains constant, so it is equivalent to a clock. How long this clock has run can be calculated based on the ratio of the content of radioactive isotope uranium in the rock to the content of its decay product lead.

There are some volcanic ash deposits in the fossil-bearing rock layers of the Guanling Formation II, and this volcanic ash contains a mineral crystal called zircon. By analyzing the ratio of uranium to lead in zircon, it can be calculated that the zircon was formed 244 million years ago, thus determining the age of the strange Luopingsaurus.

Part.5

The laws of biological evolution that fossils tell us about

As an interdisciplinary subject between geology and biology, paleontology has developed at a very early stage, and its main research object is fossils. By studying fossils, we can gradually understand the origin and evolution of life in the geological period. At the same time, the morphological structure of biological fossils has characteristics that reflect environmental conditions. Through these characteristics combined with their paleogeographic information, we can infer the living environment of organisms and reconstruct the paleogeography, paleoclimate and paleoenvironment of organisms.

In addition, fossils have a time attribute. Paleontologists have found that the higher the stratigraphic level, the more fossil types it contains and the more complex the morphological structure, which reflects the evolutionary law of biological types from simple to complex. Therefore, fossils can determine the stratigraphic sequence and compare the stratigraphic ages, and their role in biostratigraphy is very important.

In addition, the probability of fossilization is relatively low, and exquisite fossils are hard to come by. This is because not all organisms that have ever lived on Earth have the opportunity to form fossils. Most organisms are either eaten by other organisms or decomposed by microorganisms after death.

It is inferred that the strange Luopingsaurus, like other solid fossils, was first quickly buried by sediments, and then experienced a long period of diagenesis, during which its remains were replaced and filled with minerals, eventually forming fossils. Later, after the crust was lifted, the strange Luopingsaurus fossil was discovered on the surface, and finally presented through the careful repair of paleontologists.

Conclusion

Luopingsaurus bizarre represents the oldest known multi-dactyl fin-like fossil record, and provides important fossil evidence for our understanding of the early evolution of fin-like fin-like dinosaurs. The "dialogue" between humans and fossils is like a "time and space call". Fossils from 244 million years ago continue to tell people stories from ancient times, and humans have lived up to expectations and brought these "voices" that were once diluted by history back into the public eye.

Produced by: Science Popularization China

Author: Xu Guanghui (Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Editor: Ying Yike

Producer: China Science Expo

The article only represents the author's views and does not represent the position of China Science Expo

This article was first published in China Science Expo (kepubolan)

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