Open Paleo

Lingwulong

Xu et al., 2018 ling-wu-long

From 'Lingwu' (the city in Ningxia, China near the discovery site) and Chinese 'long' (dragon); meaning 'Lingwu dragon'

184.2–168.2 million years ago Toarcian–Bajocian, Early Jurassic–Middle Jurassic
Early Jurassic and Middle Jurassic stages

Lingwulong is a genus of diplodocoid sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of what is now Lingwu, Yinchuan, Ningxia, China. The type and only species is L. shenqi, known from several partial skeletons. It is one of the earliest neosauropods ever discovered, as well as the only definitive diplodocoid from east Asia.

Diagnosis

  1. Prefrontal anterior process directed laterally
  2. Orbital dorsal margin strongly ornamented by deep longitudinal grooves and tubercles
  3. Long-axes of basal tubera free tips directed anteromedially
  4. Capitate process mediolaterally long (length:height ratio ~5.0)
  5. Occipital condyle articular surface wide transversely (width:height ratio ~1.54)
  6. Lateral surface of cervical prezygapophyseal process with ridge of linear tubercle array
  7. Subcircular facet-like region at metapophyses summit in middle cervical-anterior dorsal vertebrae
  8. Small process projecting anterodorsally from anterior margin of transverse process in anterior dorsal vertebrae
  9. Anterior dorsal metapophyses twisted along length
  10. Anterior caudal neural spines bear subtriangular facet-like areas extending from summit to mid-height

Species

Lingwulong shenqi Xu et al., 2018

Type species

From Mandarin Chinese 'shenqi' (神奇) meaning 'amazing' or 'magical', reflecting the unexpected discovery of a diplodocoid sauropod in East Asia, a group never before identified in the region.

Holotype
LM V001a , Naturkundemuseum Leipzig
Material
Partial skull comprising braincase, skull roof, occiput, and associated dentary teeth.
Horizon
upper Yan'an Formation, Toarcian–Bajocian, Early Jurassic–Middle Jurassic , 184.2–168.2 million years ago
Locality
Quarry II, Lingwu Geopark, Ningxia, China Xu and colleagues (2018) place the specimens in the Yanan Formation, provisionally in its upper part, in "yellowish-grey and greyish-brown massive mudstones" overlying coal beds, and "conservatively and provisionally" date them late Toarcian to Bajocian. You and colleagues (2019), from a measured section and a borehole beside the quarry, put the fossils instead "at the top of Member 2 of the Middle Jurassic Zhiluo Formation", in lithic quartz sandstones, and give no stage. The Bathonian-Callovian later attributed to that placement does not appear in their paper.

References

  1. Xu, X.; Upchurch, P.; Mannion, P. D.; Barrett, P. M.; Regalado-Fernandez, O. R.; Mo, J.; Ma, J.; Liu, H. (2018). A new Middle Jurassic diplodocoid suggests an earlier dispersal and diversification of sauropod dinosaurs. Nature Communications 9(1). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05128-1 xu2018b
  2. You, S.; Li, Z.; Li, Y. (2019). 宁夏灵武恐龙赋存地层特征及沉积环境 [Stratigraphic characteristics and sedimentary environment of the dinosaur-bearing strata in Lingwu, Ningxia]. Acta Geologica Sichuan 39(Supplement 1): 31-35.

    Places the quarry at the top of Member 2 of the Zhiluo Formation from a measured section and borehole; gives the formation as Middle Jurassic.

    you2019a
  3. Mannion, P. D.; Moore, A. J. (2025). Critical reappraisal of a putative dicraeosaurid sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Gondwana and a revised view of diplodocoid evolutionary relationships and biogeography. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 23(1): 2550760. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/14772019.2025.2550760

    States the two candidate horizons and their ages, the Aalenian Yan'an Formation or the Bathonian-Callovian Zhiluo Formation.

    mannion2025a
  4. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the body length, mass, and hip height estimates.

    jones2026b