Lufeng Formation Explained

Lufeng Formation
Period:	Sinemurian
Age:	Hettangian-Pliensbachian ~
Type:	Geological formation
Prilithology:	Siltstone
Otherlithology:	Sandstone
Subunits:	Shawan & Zhangjia'ao Members
Underlies:	Chuanjie Formation
Overlies:	Precambrian slate basement
Thickness:	over 300m (1,000feet)
Coordinates:	25°N 102.1°W
Paleocoordinates:	34.3°N 104.6°W
Region:	Yunnan
Country:	China
Extent:	Yunnan Basin

The Lufeng Formation (formerly Lower Lufeng Series) is a Lower Jurassic sedimentary rock formation found in Yunnan, China. It has two units: the lower Dull Purplish Beds/Shawan Member are of Hettangian age, and Dark Red Beds/Zhangjia'ao Member are of Sinemurian age.^[1] It is known for its fossils of early dinosaurs. The Dull Purplish Beds have yielded the possible therizinosaur Eshanosaurus, the possible theropod Lukousaurus, and the "prosauropods" "Gyposaurus" sinensis, Lufengosaurus, Jingshanosaurus, and Yunnanosaurus. Dinosaurs discovered in the Dark Red Beds include the theropod Sinosaurus triassicus, the "prosauropods" "Gyposaurus", Lufengosaurus, and Yunnanosaurus, indeterminate remains of sauropods, and the early armored dinosaurs Bienosaurus and Tatisaurus.^[2]

Paleofauna

Ornithischians

Indeterminate ornithopod remains Yunnan. Dark Red Beds.

Ornithischians reported from the Lufeng Formation
Genus	Species	Location	Stratigraphic position	Material	Notes	Images -->
Bienosaurus^[5]	B. lufengensis	Yunnan	Dark Red Beds	A right "[d]entary with teeth,"^[6] with additional cranial fragments such as a partial frontal. These specimens are catalogued as IVPP V 9612. The dentary preserves 11 teeth or roots with two additional empty alveoli.	<	--	-->
Tatisaurus	T. oehleri	Yunnan	Dark Red Beds	"Isolated dentary."

Sauropodomorphs

Sauropodomorphs reported from the Lufeng Formation
Genus	Species	Location	Stratigraphic position	Material	Notes	Images
Chuxiongosaurus^[7]	C. lufengensis	Yunnan		"Skull
Gyposaurus	G. sinensis	Yunnan	Dark Red Beds Dull Purplish Beds	"[Two] skeletons, [one] with partial skull, [two] partial skeletons, [three] skull fragments, adult."^[8]
Fulengia	F. youngi	Yunnan	Dark Red Beds	"Skull."^[9]
Jingshanosaurus	J. xinwaensis	Yunnan	Dull Purplish Beds	"Complete skeleton with skull, adult."
"Kunmingosaurus"	"K. wusdingensis"	Yunnan	Dark Red Beds		nomen nudum
Lufengosaurus	L. huenei	Yunnan	Dark Red Beds Dull Purplish		"(including Gyposaurus sinensis, L. magnus)"
	L. magnus	Yunnan	Dark Red Beds Dull Purplish
Tawasaurus	T. minor	Yunnan	Dark Red Beds
Xingxiulong	X. chengi	Yunnan
Yizhousaurus^[10]	Y. sunae	Yunnan	Zhangjiaao Member	Partial skeleton with skull
Yunnanosaurus	Y. huangi	Yunnan	Dark Red Beds Dull Purplish	"More than [twenty] partial to complete skeletons, [two] skulls, juvenile to adult."
	Y. robustus	Yunnan	Dark Red Beds Dull Purplish

Theropods

Theropods reported from the Lower Lufeng Formation
Genus	Species	Location	Stratigraphic position	Material	Notes	Images
Eshanosaurus	E. deguchiianus	Yunnan	Dull Purplish Beds^[11]	"Dentary."^[12]	Possible therizinosaur
Lukousaurus^[13]	L. yini	Yunnan	Dark Red Beds Dull Purplish Beds	Holotype skull, tooth^[14] Three bone fragments^[15]	Possible crocodylomorph^[16]
Sinosaurus	S. triassicus	Yunnan	Dark Red Beds Dull Purplish Beds	Maxillary fragments, teeth, and a lower jaw fragment Incomplete skull and other post-cranial fragments	Dilophosaurus sinensis specimen Now included in Sinosaurus
Panguraptor^[17]	P. lufengensis	Yunnan	Dull Purplish Beds	Partial skeleton	A coelophysid

Cynodonts

Cynodonts reported from the Lufeng Formation
Genus	Species	Location	Stratigraphic position	Material	Notes	Images
Bienotherium	B. yuannanese B. magnum				A tritylodontid
Dianzhongia	D. longirostrata				A tritylodontid
Hadrocodium^[18]	H. wui	Yunnan	Dark Red Beds	Skull	One of the oldest and smallest mammaliaforms known. Indicates a correlation between the separation of the middle ear bones from the mandible and the expanded brain vault in early mammals.^[19]
Lufengia	L. delicata				A tritylodontid
Morganucodon	M. oehleri M. heikuopengensis		Zhangjiawa Member (M. heikuopengensis)Shawan Member (M. oehleri)		A morganucodontan
Sinoconodon	S. rigneyi		Zhangjiawa Member		A mammaliamorph closely related to Mammaliaformes
Yunnanodon^[20] ^[21]	Y. brevirostre	Yunnan	Dark Red Beds		A tritylodontid

See also

• List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations

References

Bibliography

• Barrett . P.M. . Xu X. . 2005 . Reassessment of Dianchungosaurus lufengensis Yang, 1982, an enigmatic reptile from the Lower Lufeng Formation (Lower Jurassic) of Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China . Journal of Paleontology . 79 . 5 . 981–986 . 10.1666/0022-3360(2005)079[0981:ARODLY]2.0.CO;2.
• Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. 861 pp. .

Notes and References

1. Luo, Z., and X.-C. Wu. 1994. The small tetrapods of the Lower Lufeng Formation, Yunnan, China; pp. 251–270 in N. C. Fraser and H.-D.Sues (eds.), In the Shadow of the Dinosaurs. Cambridge University Press, New York
2. Weishampel, et al. 2004.
3. Jones MEH. 2006 The Early Jurassic clevosaurs from China (Diapsida: Lepidosauria). New Mex. Museum Nat. Hist. Sci. Bull. 37, 548–562.
4. "48.3 Yunnan, People's Republic of China; 2. Dark Red Beds of the Lower Lufeng Series," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 534.
5. Raven . Thomas J. . Barrett . Paul M. . Xu . Xing . Maidment . Susannah C.R. . 2019 . A reassessment of the purported ankylosaurian dinosaur Bienosaurus lufengensis from the Lower Lufeng Formation of Yunnan, China . Acta Palaeontologica Polonica . 64 . 2 . 335–342 . 10.4202/app.00577.2018 . free . 10141/622543 . free .
6. "Table 15.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 336.
7. Junchang . Lü . Kobayashi . Yoshitsugu . Tianguang . Li . Shimin . Zhong . 2010 . A New Basal Sauropod Dinosaur from the Lufeng Basin, Yunnan Province, Southwestern China . 10.1111/j.1755-6724.2010.00332.x . Acta Geologica Sinica (English Edition) . 84 . 6 . 1336–1342 . 2010AcGlS..84.1336L .
8. "Table 12.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 234.
9. "Table 12.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 236.
10. Zhang . Qian-Nan . You . Hai-Lu . Wang . Tao . Chatterjee . Sankar . 2018-09-07 . A new sauropodiform dinosaur with a 'sauropodan' skull from the Lower Jurassic Lufeng Formation of Yunnan Province, China . Scientific Reports . En . 8 . 1 . 13464 . 10.1038/s41598-018-31874-9 . 30194381 . 6128897 . 2045-2322 . 2018NatSR...813464Z.
11. "48.3 Yunnan, People's Republic of China; 1. Dull Purplish Beds of the Lower Lufeng Series," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 534.
12. "Table 7.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 152.
13. "48.3 Yunnan, People's Republic of China; 1. Dull Purplish Beds of the Lower Lufeng Series and 2. Dark Red Beds of the Lower Lufeng Series" in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 534.
14. Young . C.C. . 1948 . Further notes on Gyposaurus sinensis Young . Bulletin of the Geological Society of China . 28 . 1–2 . 91–103.
15. M. N. Bien. 1940. Discovery of Triassic saurischian and primitive mammalian remains at Lufeng, Yunnan. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China 20(3/4):225-234
16. Irmis . R. B. . 2004 . First report of Megapnosaurus (Theropoda: Coelophysoidea) from China. . PaleoBios . 24 . 3 . 11–18.
17. You . Hai-Lu . Azuma . Yoichi . Wang . Tao . Wang . Ya-Ming . Dong . Zhi-Ming . The first well-preserved coelophysoid theropod dinosaur from Asia . Zootaxa . en . 3873 . 3 . 233–49 . 10.11646/zootaxa.3873.3.3 . 25544219 . 2017-09-17 . 2014.
18. Luo . Zhe-Xi . Crompton . Alfred W. . Sun . Ai-Lin . A New Mammaliaform from the Early Jurassic and Evolution of Mammalian Characteristics (Supplementary Information (Hadrocodium wui IVPP8275)) . 2001 . Science . 292 . 5521 . 1535–1540 . 10.1126/science.1058476 . 11375489 . 2001Sci...292.1535L . 8738213 . 20 April 2013.
19. Luo . Zhe-Xi . Crompton . Alfred W. . Sun . Ai-Lin . A New Mammaliaform from the Early Jurassic and Evolution of Mammalian Characteristics . 2001 . Science . 292 . 5521 . 1535–1540 . 10.1126/science.1058476 . 11375489 . 2001Sci...292.1535L . 8738213 . dead . https://www.webcitation.org/6J0mLMZqR?url=http://www.bi.ku.dk/dna/course/papers/J1.luo.pdf . 2013-08-20 .
20. Cui . G. H. . 1976 . Yunnania, a new tritylodont genus from Lufeng, Yunnan. . Vertebrata PalAsiatica . 25 . 1–7.
21. Cui . G. H. . 1986 . Yunnanodon, a replacement name for Yunnania Cui, 1976. . Gu Jizhui Dongwu Yu Gu Renlei Vertebr. PalAsiatica . 24 . 9.