Nebulasaurus
Sign in to saveNebulasaurus is an extinct genus of basal eusauropod dinosaur known from the early Middle Jurassic Zhanghe Formation (Aalenian or Bajocian stage) of Yunnan Province, China. It is known only from the holotype braincase LDRC-v.d.1. A phylogenetic analysis found Nebulasaurus to be a sister taxon to Spinophorosaurus from the Middle Jurassic of Africa. This discovery is significant paleontologically because it represents a clade of basal eusauropods previously unknown from Asia.
Article
9 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Description
- Classification
- Distinguishing anatomical features
- Paleoecology
- Provenance and occurrence
- Fauna and habitat
- Notes
- References
Nebulasaurus is an extinct genus of basal eusauropod dinosaur known from the early Middle Jurassic Zhanghe Formation (Aalenian or Bajocian stage) of Yunnan Province, China. It is known only from the holotype braincase LDRC-v.d.1. A phylogenetic analysis found Nebulasaurus to be a sister taxon to Spinophorosaurus from the Middle Jurassic of Africa. This discovery is significant paleontologically because it represents a clade of basal eusauropods previously unknown from Asia.
==Etymology== The genus name Nebulasaurus, means "misty cloud lizard", and is derived from the Latin word nebulae meaning "misty cloud", a reference to "Yunnan" which means "southern misty cloudy province" and the Greek word "" () meaning "lizard" The specific name ‘’taito’’, was given in honor of Japanese company Taito, which funded the field project and is geographically near the discovery site. Nebulasaurus was described and named by Lida Xing, Tetsuto Miyashita, Philip J. Currie, Hailu You, and Zhiming Dong in 2015 and the type species is Nebulasaurus taito. Nebulasaurus was one of eighteen dinosaur taxa from 2015 to be described in open access or free-to-read journals.