''Pukyongosaurus'' (meaning "Pukyong lizard", after the

Pukyong National University Pukyong National University (PKNU) is a national university in Busan, South Korea, formed in 1996. The university has two campuses, Daeyeon-dong and Yongdang-dong, situated near the coastal district of Nam-gu. PKNU has a traditional focus on fi ...

) is a

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 ...

titanosauriform Macronaria is a clade of sauropod dinosaurs. Macronarians are named after the large diameter of the nasal opening of their skull, known as the external naris, which exceeded the size of the orbit, the skull opening where the eye is located (hence ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

that lived in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

during the Early

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

period (

Aptian The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early or Lower Cretaceous Epoch or Series and encompasses the time from 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma to 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma (million years ago), a ...

Albian The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0.9 M ...

). It may have been closely related to ''

Euhelopus ''Euhelopus'' is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived between 145 and 133 million years ago during the Berriasian and Valanginian stages of the Early Cretaceous in what is now Shandong Province in China. It was a large quadrupedal herbivore. U ...

'', and is known from a series of

vertebra The spinal column, a defining synapomorphy shared by nearly all vertebrates,Hagfish are believed to have secondarily lost their spinal column is a moderately flexible series of vertebrae (singular vertebra), each constituting a characteristic ...

e in the neck and back. The characteristics that were originally used to distinguish this genus have been criticized as being either widespread or too poorly preserved to evaluate, rendering the genus an indeterminate

nomen dubium In binomial nomenclature, a ''nomen dubium'' (Latin for "doubtful name", plural ''nomina dubia'') is a scientific name that is of unknown or doubtful application. Zoology In case of a ''nomen dubium'' it may be impossible to determine whether a s ...

among titanosauriforms. The 2022 study noted that ''Pukyongosaurus'' is probably a

somphospondylan Somphospondyli is an extinct clade of titanosauriform sauropods that lived from the Late Jurassic until the end of the Late Cretaceous, comprising all titanosauriforms more closely related to Titanosauria proper than Brachiosauridae. The remain ...

Discovery

In 2001, several fragments of a sauropod skeleton were discovered in the

Hasandong Formation The Hasandong Formation () is an Early Cretaceous ( Aptian to Albian) geologic formation in South Korea. It has been dated to the late Aptian and earliest Albian, between 118.0 ± 2.6 Ma and 112.4 ± 1.3 Ma. Dinosaur remains diagnostic ...

Hadong County Hadong County (, ''Hadong-gun'') is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, county in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. It is on the far-west side of the province, bordering South Jeolla Province. The county office is located at Hadeong-eu ...

. One of the caudal vertebrae ascribed to ''Pukyongosaurus'' has bite marks from theropod teeth.

References

Macronarians Early Cretaceous dinosaurs of Asia Barremian life Hauterivian life Fossils of South Korea Fossil taxa described in 2001 Taxa named by Dong Zhiming Nomina dubia {{Sauropodomorph-stub