Lishulong
From Mandarin Chinese '栗樹' (lìshù) meaning 'chestnut tree', after the name of the type locality, combined with '龍' (lóng) meaning 'dragon', hence 'chestnut tree dragon'. Named for Wang Zheng-Ju in the species epithet.
Lishulong is a genus of sauropodiform dinosaur from the Early Jurassic Lufeng Formation of China. The type and only species is Lishulong wangi.
Diagnosis
- Width of anteroventral process of nasal at base less than anterodorsal process
- Size of neurovascular foramen at posterior end of lateral maxillary row not larger than anterior foramina
- Lateral expansion at anterior region of dorsal surface of cervical neural spines
- Supraoccipital semilunate and wider than high in posterior view
- Teeth with lingual concavities present
- Dentary with height to length ratio greater than 0.2
Species
Lishulong wangi Zhang et al., 2024
Type species
Named for Wang Zheng-Ju, discoverer of Lufengpithecus and contributor to vertebrate paleontology in Lufeng, China, honored in the genitive Latin '-i' suffix.
- Holotype
- LFGT-ZLJ0011 , Lufeng World Dinosaur Valley
- Material
- Partial skeleton including cranium, mandible, and nine cervical vertebrae (axis and C3-C10)
- Horizon
- Shawan Member, Lufeng Formation, Hettangian–Sinemurian, Early Jurassic , 201.4–192.9 million years ago
- Locality
- Jiudu Village in Konglongshan Town, Yunnan, China Zhang and colleagues (2024) give the horizon as "the upper-middle part of the Shawan Member of the Lufeng" Formation. Their "Early Jurassic (late Sinemurian–Toarcian)" is a magnetostratigraphic age for the formation as a whole, not for the member.
References
-
Zhang, Q. N.; Jia, L.; Wang, T.; Zhang, Y. G.; You, H. L. (2024). The largest sauropodomorph skull from the Lower Jurassic Lufeng Formation of China. PeerJ 12: e18629. PeerJ. doi:10.7717/peerj.18629
Places the holotype in the upper-middle part of the Shawan Member.
zhang2024a -
Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.
Source of the mass and hip height estimates.
jones2026b -
Chen, J.; Niu, Y. N.; Ma, R.; Zhou, Y. L.; Liu, W. J.; Wang, Y. M.; You, H. L.; Xu, X.; Shen, S. Z.; Feng, Z. (2026). Triassic–Jurassic environmental instability on the subtropical eastern Tethyan margin linked to low-latitude dinosaur dispersal. Communications Earth & Environment 7: 91. doi:10.1038/s43247-025-03083-6
Dates the base of the Lufeng Formation, where it overlies the Yubacun, to about 200.1 Ma, Hettangian on the ICS chart v2024/12.
chen2026a -
Fang, X.; Long, Q.; Lu, L.; Zhang, Z.; Pan, S.; Wang, Y.; Li, X.; Cheng, Z. (2000). [Lower, Middle, and Upper Jurassic divisions of the Lufeng region of Yunnan province]. Proceedings of the Third National Stratigraphical Congress of China 208-214. Geological Publishing House, Beijing.
Gives the Shawan Member's thickness and its unconformable base at the type section.
fang2000a