New Juvenile Specimen of Lufengosaurus huenei from the Lower Jurassic of China

Sekiya, T., and Dong, Z. 2010. A New Juvenile Specimen of Lufengosaurus huenei Young, 1941(Dinosauria: Prosauropoda) from the Lower Jurassic Lower Lufeng Formation of Yunnan, Southwest China. Acta Geologica Sinica (English Version) 84:11-21.

Abstract - A skull and a series of associated cervical vertebrae (ZLJ0112)discovered from the Lower Lufeng Formation (Lower Jurassic) are determined as a juvenile specimen of Lufengosaurus huenei Young 1941 based on amended autapomorphies. Differences between ZLJ0112 and the holotype (subadult specimen) are considered as ontogenetic characteristic changes of L. huenei. Since some of these differences are present in other prosauropod dinosaurs (i.e., forms of the maxillary vascular foramen are irregular; the frontal contribution to the dorsal margin of the orbit is substantial; the frontal contribution to the supratemporal fossa is absent; the supratemporal fenestra is visible in lateral view; the supraoccipital inclined at 75 degrees; the parasphenoid rostrum lies level with the occipital condyle; the retroarticular process is short; the axial postzygapophysis project caudally beyond the end of the centrum) they may be common ontogenetic changes in prosauropod dinosaurs.