Dino of the Week: Lufengosaurus

Type Species: Lufengosaurus young

Classification: Dinosauria - Saurischia - Prosauropoda

Time Period: Early Jurassic

Location: China

Diet: Herbivore

Lufengosaurus lived in China during the Early Jurassic around 190 million years ago. It’s similar to its contemporary Yunnanosaurus: both were prosauropods that reached to about twenty-three feet in length and half a ton in weight (though some more recent estimates have put Lufengosaurus at up to thirty feet long); both had small heads with long necks and tails, tubby torsos, and both were quadrupedal; both had deep and broad snouts; both had shorter forelimbs than hind-limbs (though Lufengosaurus’ were slightly shorter relative to the hind-limbs); and both were named only one year apart by the same paleontologist. These coincidences prompted theories that Lufengosaurus and Yunnanosaurus were the same dinosaur with intraspecies variation. This would mean that Yunnanosaurus was actually a variant species of Lufengosaurus, since Lufengosaurus was named first, in 1941. Others have built upon this theory and added a twist: both Lufengosaurus and Yunnanosaurus may have been different species of the earlier Massospondylus. Thus all three would be species of Massospondylus, and paleontological textbooks would need to be rewritten. These theories have fallen out of vogue, however, due to the fact that Lufengosaurus and Yunnanosaurus differ wildly when it comes to their teeth. Whereas Yunnanosaurus teeth were narrow and spoon-shaped (like those of sauropods), Lufengosaurus retained the widely-spaced, leaf-shaped teeth common to early sauropodomorphs. 

Lufengosaurus was herbivorous, though – like all prosauropods – it had sharp claws, especially on its thumbs, and sharp, serrated teeth. This has led some to speculate that Lufengosaurus – along with its prosauropod kin – was omnivorous. However, modern herbivorous iguanas have sharp teeth and claws, and they don’t eat meat. The strongest theory is that Lufengosaurus was herbivorous, using its sharp claws for defense or for raking foliage from trees. This prosauropod has made headlines at least twice after its discovery. First, its fossilized embryos have been discovered, and they represent the earliest evidence of vertebrate soft tissue preservation. Second, in 2017 scientists discovered 195-million-year-old collagen protein (used in connective tissues) in the fossilized rib bone of a Lufengosaurus.