Abstract
ABSTRACT A new morphotype of nothosaurs collected from the Upper Member of Anisian Guanling Formation in the Muta village, Luxi County, Yunnan Province, China is reported here. The new morphotype is represented by a single specimen that can be distinguished from other nothosaurs in the combination of the following features: premaxilla partly fused, jugal positioned forward in the cheek, pineal foramen in a deep trough and close to the middle of the skull table, quadratojugal present, distinctly long internal naris. The right lower jaw of the new specimen is completely exposed in medial view, providing hereto unknown information about the medial morphology of the lower jaw for nothosaurid sauropterygians, including the large splenial forming half of the inner wall of the lower jaw, the slender and elongate coronoid located in the middle of the mandible, and the Meckelian foramen located within the adductor fossa bounded by surangular and prearticular. Morphological comparison with other Triassic eosauropteygians reveals previously unrecognised characters that may be used for reconstructing the phylogeny of sauropterygians in the future.
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