Pukyongosaurus Explained

Pukyongosaurus (meaning "Pukyong lizard", after the Pukyong National University^[1]) is a genus of titanosauriform dinosaur that lived in South Korea during the Early Cretaceous period (Aptian - Albian). It may have been closely related to Euhelopus, and is known from a series of vertebrae in the neck and back. The characteristics that were originally used to distinguish this genus have been criticized as being either widespread or too poorly preserved to evaluate, rendering the genus an indeterminate nomen dubium among titanosauriforms.^[2] The 2022 study noted that Pukyongosaurus is probably a somphospondylan.^[3]

Discovery

In 2000, several fragments of a sauropod skeleton were discovered in the Hasandong Formation in Hadong County, South Korea. One of the caudal vertebrae ascribed to Pukyongosaurus has bite marks from theropod teeth.^[4]

Notes and References

1. Book: Dong . Z.M. . Paik . I.S. . Kim . H.J. . 2001 . A preliminary report on a sauropod from the Hasandong Formation (Lower Cretaceous), Korea . Proceedings of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Chinese Society of Vertebrate Paleontology . Deng . T. . Wang . Y. . 41–53 . Beijing . China Ocean Press.
2. Park . J.-Y. . Comments on the validity of the taxonomic status of "Pukyongosaurus" (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) . Memoir of the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum . 15 . 27–32 . 2016 .
3. Poropat, S.F.. Frauenfelder, T.G.. Mannion, P.D.. Rigby, S.L.. Pentland, A.H.. Sloan, T.. Elliott, D.A.. 2022. Sauropod dinosaur teeth from the lower Upper Cretaceous Winton Formation of Queensland, Australia and the global record of early titanosauriforms. Royal Society Open Science. 9. 7 . 220381. 10.1098/rsos.220381. 35845848 . 9277269 . 2022RSOS....920381P . free.
4. Paik . In Sung . Kim . Hyun Joo . Lim . Jong Deock . Huh . Min . Lee . Ho Il . Diverse tooth marks on an adult sauropod bone from the Early Cretaceous, Korea: Implications in feeding behaviour of theropod dinosaurs . Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology . September 2011 . 309 . 3-4 . 342–346 . 10.1016/j.palaeo.2011.07.002.