''Fuyuansaurus'' is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

of "

protorosaur Protorosauria is an extinct polyphyletic group of archosauromorph reptiles from the latest Middle Permian (Capitanian stage) to the end of the Late Triassic ( Rhaetian stage) of Asia, Europe and North America. It was named by the English anato ...

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

s (probably part of

Tanystropheidae Tanystropheidae is an extinct family of mostly marine archosauromorph reptiles that lived throughout the Triassic Period. They are characterized by their long, stiff necks formed from elongated cervical vertebrae with very long cervical ribs. So ...

) known from the

Middle Triassic In the geologic timescale, the Middle Triassic is the second of three epochs of the Triassic period or the middle of three series in which the Triassic system is divided in chronostratigraphy. The Middle Triassic spans the time between Ma and ...

(

Ladinian The Ladinian is a stage and age in the Middle Triassic series or epoch. It spans the time between Ma and ~237 Ma (million years ago). The Ladinian was preceded by the Anisian and succeeded by the Carnian (part of the Upper or Late Triassic). ...

stage)

Falang Formation Farang ( fa, فرنگ) is a Persian (and Southeast Asian) word that originally referred to the Franks (the major Germanic tribe) and later came to refer to White Europeans in general. The word "Farang" is a cognate and originates from Old F ...

of southern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. ''Fuyuansaurus'' was first named by Nicholas C. Fraser, Olivier Rieppel and Li Chun in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

and the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

is ''Fuyuansaurus acutirostris''. This genus is known from a single partial skeleton, IVPP V17983. This skeleton includes part of the skull, most of the neck, and portions of the trunk, shoulder girdle, and hip. ''Fuyuansaurus'' can be distinguished from other "protorosaurs" by its elongated and slender snout. Like ''

Tanystropheus ''Tanystropheus'' (Greek ~ 'long' + 'hinged') is an extinct archosauromorph reptile from the Middle Triassic, Middle and Late Triassic epochs. It is recognisable by its extremely elongated neck, which measured long—longer than its body and t ...

'', it possessed an elongated neck, but it differs from most tanystropheids in the structure of its hip. Nevertheless, Ezcurra and Butler classified it as a tanystropheid in 2018, as did Spiekman et al. in 2021.

Description

The skull was crushed and incomplete, with the tip of the snout broken off and the middle part of the skull obscured by the part of the overlain backbone and hip. Nevertheless, the low angle between the upper edge of preserved snout bones and the lower edge of the skull indicates that the snout was long and slender, more so than its relatives. The

maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In humans, the upper jaw includes the hard palate in the front of the mouth. The t ...

was covered with longitudinal grooves and possibly had a depression on its side, although the overlapping bones makes it difficult to come to specific conclusions about the area. The portion of the skull behind the eyes was rather short, and the parietal bones had a ridge along their midline. The lower jaw was as long and thin as the snout, and the jaw joint had a large and rounded retroarticular process (rear branch). Preserved teeth are all small and needle-like. The

cervical In anatomy, cervical is an adjective that has two meanings: # of or pertaining to any neck. # of or pertaining to the female cervix: i.e., the ''neck'' of the uterus. *Commonly used medical phrases involving the neck are **cervical collar **cervic ...

(neck) vertebrae were generally low and very elongated like those of other "protorosaurs". There were likely thirteen cervicals in total, and they were longest at the middle of the neck (specifically, at the seventh cervical). The last few cervicals were shorter and taller than the rest, and it is possible that they were the first few dorsal (back) vertebrae, although no

or dorsal ribs were preserved in that region to clarify their condition. Cervical ribs were present on other cervicals, and they were typically very long as in other "protorosaurs". The dorsal vertebrae, though similar in number to the cervicals, were shorter and had taller neural spines. The dorsals immediately behind the shoulder girdle had expanded buttress-like transverse processes (projections which connect to the ribs). The shoulder region was very incomplete, preserving fan-shaped

scapula The scapula (plural scapulae or scapulas), also known as the shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus (upper arm bone) with the clavicle (collar bone). Like their connected bones, the scapulae are paired, with each scapula on eithe ...

e (shoulder blades) similar to that of tanystropheids, as well as fragments of a coracoid and humerus. The hip area was somewhat better preserved and more distinctive in Fuyuansaurus. The three bones of the hip ( ilium, pubis, and

ischium The ischium () form ...

) were separated from each other by short gaps in the skeleton, though the ilium was likely connected to the other bones in life. Unusually, the pubis and ischium were separated by a long, straight gap. This is in contrast to typical tanystropheids, which have the pubis and ischium curve towards each other, often contacting each other at the bottom to enclose a hole termed the thyroid fenestra. A portion of the square-shaped

femoral head The femoral head (femur head or head of the femur) is the highest part of the thigh bone (femur). It is supported by the femoral neck. Structure The head is globular and forms rather more than a hemisphere, is directed upward, medialward, and a l ...

is also preserved.

References

External links

A phys.org press release focusing on ''Fuyuansaurus''

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15727690 Tanystropheids Prehistoric reptile genera Ladinian genera Middle Triassic reptiles of Asia Triassic China Fossils of China Fossil taxa described in 2013