Live Breaking News & Updates on Lower Cretaceous Haoling Formation

Tooth replacement rate is an important feature related to feeding mechanics and food choices for dinosaurs. However, only a few data points are available for sauropod dinosaurs, partially due to rarity of relevant fossil material. Four somphospondylan sauropod species have been recovered from the Lower Cretaceous Aptian–Albian Haoling Formation in the Ruyang Basin, Henan Province of central China, but no cranial material has been reported except for a single crown. Here we report the discovery of the rostral portion of a left dentary with replacement teeth in its first five alveoli. Comparative anatomical study shows the partial dentary can be assigned to a member of early diverging somphospondylans. The non-destructive tooth length-based approach to estimating tooth formation time and replacement rate is adopted here. The estimated tooth replacement rate is 76 days, faster than that of Brachiosaurus (83 days) and much lower than typical late diverging lithostrotian titanosaurians (2 ....

Institute Of Geology , Chinese Academy Of Geological Sciences , Henan Natural History Museum , Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation , Late Cretaceous , Early Cretaceous , Ruyang Basin , Henan Province , Natural History Museum , Shaping Village , Liudian Town , Ruyang County , Lower Cretaceous Aptian , Haoling Formation , Lower Cretaceous Haoling Formation , Chinese Academy , Geological Sciences , Early Cretaceous Ruyang ,