Called Pulaosaurus qinglongthe newly-identified dinosaur types resided in what is now China throughout the Jurassic duration, around 160 million years earlier.

The ancient reptile belonged to the so-called Yanliao Biota, a Middle-to-Late Jurassic-aged environment that consisted of dinosaurs, mammals, amphibians, bugs and lizards, along with plants.

“The Yanliao Biota is among the most substantial Mesozoic, terrestrial lagerstätte in China, with an age that varies from 168 to 157 million years and is consisted of fossil assemblages from the Jiulongshan and the Tiaojishan Formations,” stated senior author Dr. Xing Xu, a paleontologist with the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Yunnan University, and coworkers.

“In overall, there have actually been 54 genera and 58 types of vertebrates reported from the Yanliao Biota, consisting of 9 types of non-avian dinosaurs.”

“Because the Yanliao Biota maintains big quantities of vertebrate product from lots of types, it uses insight to significant paleobiological occasions, such as the temporal origin of birds and the early development of mammals.”

“However, non-avian dinosaurs discovered in the Yanliao Biota are all small-bodied theropods whereas Ornithischia is represented by just one types, which might potentially be from the Jehol Biota.”

“This remains in plain contrast to other synchronous Chinese terrestrial animals such as the Shishugou and Shaximiao animals where body size and taxonomic structure are more variable.”

Pulaosaurus qinglong comes from Neornithischia (brand-new ornithischians), a group of dinosaurs with the order Ornithischia.

Developed in 1985, neornithischians had a thicker layer of unbalanced enamel on the within of their lower teeth.

“Neornithischia is a considerable group of dinosaurs whose earliest origin might be gone back to the Middle Jurassic, represented by a number of early-diverging types consisting of Sanxiasaurus Agilisaurus Hexinlusaurus discovered in China,” the paleontologists stated.

“Besides China, there have actually been reports of neornithischian fossils from the Middle Jurassic of Eastern Europe, Scotland and layers from other geological times and nations.”

“Neornithischia diverges quickly into a variety of types in the Cretaceous duration.”

The unspoiled specimen of Pulaosaurus qinglong was discovered in the Tiaojishan Formation of Qinglong in China’s Hebei province.

“The fossil is consisted of an almost total skeleton prepared on a brownish-red sandstone piece,” the scientists stated.

“The specimen protects the majority of the skull and a total postcranial skeleton.”

According to the researchers, Pulaosaurus qinglong was a small-bodied neornthischian.

“The overall length of this specimen is roughly 72.2 cm (i.e., the length from the rostral end of the skull to the caudal end of the last maintained caudal vertebrate) while its skull length has to do with 8 cm,” they stated.

The discovery of the brand-new types sheds brand-new light on the biodiversity of Yanliao Biota and the phylogeny of early-diverging neornithischians.

“A phylogenetic analysis locations Pulaosaurus qinglong at the base of Neornithischia near to Agilisauruswhich is the earliest-diverging neornithischian,” the authors stated.

“The brand-new types represents the very first neornithischian discovered in the Yanliao Biota, and assists to fill the temporal and geographical space in the circulation of Neornithischia within China.”

“A set of arytenoids are maintained in the Pulaosaurus qinglong holotype and represents the 2nd case of an ossified laryngeal device amongst non-avian dinosaurs.”

“The arytenoids of Pulaosaurus qinglong shows that ossified laryngeal devices existed in Neornithischia, hence recommending that the ossified laryngeal device might be prevalent throughout Dinosauria.”

“As the morphology of Pulaosaurus qinglong arytenoids looks like the arytenoids of extant birds, it is possible for the brand-new types to have an avian-like vocalization.”

The discovery of Pulaosaurus qinglong is reported in a paper in the journal PeerJ

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Y. Yang et al2025. A brand-new neornithischian dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic Tiaojishan Formation of northern China. PeerJ 13: e19664; doi: 10.7717/ peerj.19664