Fulengia is a dubious genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic Lufeng Formation of China.[1]
The type species, F. youngi, was described by Carroll and Galton in 1977.[2] It is a nomen dubium, and may be the same animal as Lufengosaurus (from which it is anagramized). It was originally thought to be a lizard.
The holotype of Fulengia (CUP 2037), a mineralised lump containing a small skull, just under 4cm (02inches) long, a single vertebra, and a jumble of unidentifiable bones, was originally catalogued as a juvenile specimen of Yunnanosaurus huangi by Simmons in 1965,[3] who reckoned they were "coprolitic in origin", but there is no way to accurately prove this. Twelve years later Carroll and Galton reclassified it as a lizard of Late Triassic age and named the species Fulengia youngi.
The holotype remains, and two other nodules (CUP 2038a and CUP 2038b)[4] from the same site were also found during reinspection of the Catholic University of Peking collections in 1989. In 1989, Evans and Milner classified Fulengia as an Early Jurassic sauropodomorph.[5]
It was around 6.2m (20.3feet) long and around 600kg (1,300lb) in weight when fully grown.[6] Its height was unknown, and it had a skull size of around 4cm (02inches) long.