Name:
Nebulasaurus
(Misty cloud lizard).
Phonetic: Neb-u-la-sore-us.
Named By: L. Xing, T. Miyashita, P. J
Currie, H. You & Z. Dong - 2013.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Sauropoda, Eusauropoda.
Species: N. taito (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Uncertain due to incomplete remains.
Known locations: China, Yunnan Province -
Zhanghe Formation.
Time period: Aalenian/Bajocian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Braincase (the part of the
skull that houses the brain).
Although
based only upon the description of the braincase, it has been enough
to not only identify Nebulasaurus as a new eusauropod
dinosaur, but
also further hints that during the middle Jurassic Asia had a very
diverse range of sauropod dinosaurs. By the late Jurassic this
diverse range seems to have thinned out in favour of mamenchisaurid
sauropods (those similar to Mamenchisaurus).
The
braincase of Nebulasaurus has been noted as showing
a great
similarity to another genus named Spinophorosaurus
which is known from
Africa. Spinophorosaurus is known by much more
complete remains which
include a set of short spikes that were situated on the end of the tail
like the thagomizer of a stegosaur. This leads to the question, if
Spinophorosaurus had a thagomizer, did Nebulasaurus
have a thagomizer
too? Unfortunately, unless a tail of Nebulasaurus
is ever found,
we simply can’t say for certain, but there was a another genus of
sauropod living slightly later in the middle Jurassic than Nebulasaurus
in China named Shunosaurus,
that actually had a spiked tail club.
Further reading
- A new basal eusauropod from the Middle Jurassic of Yunnan,
China, and faunal compositions and transitions of Asian
sauropodomorph dinosaurs - Acta Palaeontologica Polonica - L.
Xing, T. Miyashita, P. J Currie, H. You & Z.
Dong - 2013.