Fuyuansaurus

Fuyuansaurus
Temporal range: Middle Triassic, Ladinian
↓
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauromorpha
Family: †Trachelosauridae (?)
Genus: †Fuyuansaurus
Fraser et al., 2013
Type species
†Fuyuansaurus acutirostris
Fraser et al., 2013

Fuyuansaurus is an extinct genus of "protorosaur" reptiles (probably part of Tanystropheidae) known from the Middle Triassic (Ladinian stage) Zhuganpo Formation of southern China. Fuyuansaurus was first named by Nicholas C. Fraser, Olivier Rieppel and Li Chun in 2013 and the type species is Fuyuansaurus acutirostris.[1]

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, 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,[2] as did Spiekman et al. in 2021.[3]

  1. ^ Fraser, N. C.; Rieppel, O.; Chun, L. (2013). "A long-snouted protorosaur from the Middle Triassic of southern China". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 33 (5): 1120. Bibcode:2013JVPal..33.1120F. doi:10.1080/02724634.2013.764310. S2CID 83521468.
  2. ^ Ezcurra, Martín D.; Butler, Richard J. (2018-06-13). "The rise of the ruling reptiles and ecosystem recovery from the Permo-Triassic mass extinction". Proc. R. Soc. B. 285 (1880): 20180361. doi:10.1098/rspb.2018.0361. ISSN 0962-8452. PMC 6015845. PMID 29899066.
  3. ^ Spiekman, Stephan N. F.; Fraser, Nicholas C.; Scheyer, Torsten M. (2021-05-03). "A new phylogenetic hypothesis of Tanystropheidae (Diapsida, Archosauromorpha) and other "protorosaurs", and its implications for the early evolution of stem archosaurs". PeerJ. 9: e11143. doi:10.7717/peerj.11143. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 8101476. PMID 33986981.