Cranial osteology of Lufengosaurus huenei Young (Dinosauria: Prosauropoda) from the Lower Jurassic of Yunnan, People’s Republic of China
Paul M. Barrett, Paul Upchurch and Wang Xiao-Lin, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2005, 25(4):806-822
The cranial osteology of many prosauropod dinosaurs remains poorly described, hampering broader systematic studies of basal sauropodomorph interrelationships. Here, we present a detailed re-description of the skull of Lufengosaurus huenei Young, 1941a, from the Lower Lufeng Formation (Lower Jurassic) of China. Lufengosaurus can be diagnosed on the basis of four cranial autapomorphies (the presence of bony bosses on the ascending process of the maxilla, the jugal, and the rostrolateral wing of the parietal, and the presence of a ridge on the lateral surface of the maxilla) and distinguished from all other prosauropods by a unique combination of cranial character states. Previous suggestions that Lufengosaurus is congeneric with either Massospondylus or Yunnanosaurus are rejected on the basis of craniodental evidence. Comparison with published character codings for Lufengosaurus reveals numerous discrepancies that are demonstrated to affect the phylogenetic position of the genus and patterns of sauropodomorph interrelationships.