Yimenosaurus

[bh480@scn.org]

To: dinosaur@usc.edu
From: Ben Creisler bh480@scn.org
Subject: Yimenosaurus

George Olshevsky recently straightened out the author and 
date for Yimenosaurus, but could not provide the full 
citation. Tracy Ford kindly sent me a photocopy of the 
original article in Chinese (which has no English 
abstract), and I've done a  quick, skim-through 
translation to fill in some basic details.

The full citation is:

Bai Ziqi, Yang Jie & Wang Guohui, 1990. A new genus of 
prosauropod from the Yuxi (region) of Yunnnan Province 
[Yunnan Yuxi yuanxijiao lei yi xin shu]. Yuxi Cultural 
Organization [Yuxi Wen Tuan] 1: 14-23 +  Plate 1.  
(October 1990)

(I am assuming that "1990 year 10 month" on the cover 
means the publication came out in October and not that 
this edition was the 10th issue put out in 1990--but 
without seeing the publication schedule I can't be 100 
percent sure. I think a different character would have 
been used to indicate the tenth issue of a publication. 
Since this a provincial scholarly publication, a monthly 
schedule seems pretty unlikely.)

The journal Yuxi Wen Tuan is published by two 
organizations from the Yunnan Province Yuxi Prefecture as 
far as I can tell: the Wen Tuan Xuehui [Cultural 
Organization Learned Assembly] and the Wenwu Guanli Suo 
[Cultural Matters Administrative Center]. Better English 
translations of the titles of the organizations and the 
journal itself are probably possible--but you get the 
idea. Anyway, dinosaurs are part of the "culture" in 
China! (The Chinese character for "culture" and "writing" 
are the same, and I originally translated the journal 
title as Yuxi Literary Society, but Yuxi Cultural 
Organization makes more sense. I couldn't find a reference 
to this apparently obscure journal in English that might 
provide a better standard translation. If I find such a 
translation, I'll pass it on.)

The fossils comes from the Early Jurassic Fengjiahe 
Formation in the Yimen Basin, Yuxi region of Yunnan 
Province.  Material consists of two partial skeletons: 
YXV8701 and YXV8702. The first includes major parts of a 
skull, depicted in a reconstruction. As restored, the 
skull is quite deep and short compared to Lufengosaurus or 
Plateosaurus. Other bones mentioned include the femur, 
tibia and pubic bones. Yimenosaurus is described as a 
medium-sized prosauropod (estimated length around 9 m.),  
classified as a member of the Plateosauridae.

I'll add a few more details when I do an entry for 
Yimenosaurus in the Dinosauria On-line Pronunciation Guide.