Fulengia
Extinct genus of dinosaurs
title: "Fulengia" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["sauropodomorpha", "dinosaur-genera", "sinemurian-dinosaurs", "lufeng-formation", "taxa-named-by-robert-l.-carroll", "taxa-named-by-peter-galton", "fossil-taxa-described-in-1977", "dinosaurs-of-china"] description: "Extinct genus of dinosaurs" topic_path: "geography/china" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulengia" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Extinct genus of dinosaurs ::
| fossil_range = Early Jurassic, | parent_authority = Carroll and Galton, 1977 | taxon = Fulengia youngi | authority = Carroll and Galton, 1977 | display_parents = 2
Fulengia is a dubious genus of basal sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic Lufeng Formation of China. The type species, F. youngi, was described by Carroll and Galton in 1977. 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.
History
The holotype of Fulengia (CUP 2037), a mineralised lump containing a small skull, just under 4 cm long, a single vertebra, and a jumble of unidentifiable bones, was originally catalogued as a juvenile specimen of Yunnanosaurus huangi by Simmons in 1965,Simmons, D.J. (1965) "The non-therapsid reptiles of the Lufeng Basin, Yunnan, China". 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) from the same site were also found during reinspection of the Catholic University of Peking collections in 1989.
Description
It was around 6.2 m long and around 600 kg in weight when fully grown. Its height was unknown, and it had a skull size of around 4 cm long.
References
References
- "48.3 [[Yunnan]], [[People's Republic of China]]; 2. [[Lufeng Formation. Dark Red Beds of the Lower Lufeng Series]]," in [[David Weishampel. Weishampel]], ''et al''. (2004). Page 534.
- Carroll, R.L. and Galton, P.M. (1977) "A 'modern' lizard from the Upper Triassic of China".
- R. L. Carroll. 1988. ''Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution'' 1-698
- In 1989, Evans and Milner classified ''Fulengia'' as an [[Early Jurassic]] [[sauropodomorph]].S.E. Evans and A.R. Milner (1989) "''Fulengia'', a supposed early lizard reinterpreted as a prosauropod dinosaur".
- Yang, Z. (1982b). On a new genus of dinosaur from Lufeng, Yunnan. ''Selected works of Yang'', Z. p. 38-42. Science Press, Beijing (中文).
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