Re-examination of Dashanpusaurus dongi (Sauropoda: Macronaria) supports an early Middle Jurassic global distribution of neosauropod dinosaurs

Abstract

Neosauropods were the dominant sauropod clade with a global distribution as early as the Late Jurassic. However, its distribution and biogeography in the Middle Jurassic are unclear due to the paucity of phylogenetic evidence for neosauropod taxa of this age. In China, the only reported Middle Jurassic neosauropod, the diplodocoid, has challenged the traditional East Asian Isolation Hypothesis for dinosaur paleobiogeography. Here, based on phylogenetic analysis including Dashanpusaurus dongi from the early Middle Jurassic of southwest China, we demonstrate that this taxon represents the earliest diverging macronarian as well as the stratigraphically lowest neosauropod globally. Our biogeographic analysis together with other geological evidence further indicates that neosauropods achieved a global distribution at least in the early Middle Jurassic while Pangaea was still a coherent landmass.