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Late Jurassic Squamata and possible Choristodera from the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, Northwest China

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Abstract

Screen washing at the Liuhuanggou locality, a fossiliferous bone bed within the early Late Jurassic Qigu Formation, 40 km southwest of the city of Urumqi, yielded two lizard jaw fragments with teeth and two lizard osteoderm fragments, which together reveal the presence of Paramacellodidae. The same locality also yielded four tentative choristoderan jaw and tooth fragments. This find is the first record of Mesozoic lizards and probable choristoderes from the Junggar Basin and Northwest China and expands the palaeobiodiversity known from the Qigu Formation.

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Acknowledgements

We address our special thank to Prof. Sun Ge (Jilin University and Shenyang Normal University) for his constant help and support of our field work in Xinjiang during many years. For collaboration and field assistance, we are deeply indebted to personnel from the Geological Survey No. 1 in Urumqi and the Jilin University in Changchun. Christian Dechert, Juliane Hinz, Kristina Hippe, Li Jie, Roland Kersting, Jean Sebastian Marpmann, Rico Schellhorn, Köbi Siber, Ben Thuy, Wu Wenhao, Du Xing and Dr. Sun Yue-Wu, helped in the field during excavation. Sven Balmer, Juliane Hinz, Kristina Hippe, Kai Jäger, Roland Kersting, Franziska Kiebach, Anke Küttner, Jacqueline Langer, Leonie Lenssen, Kristina Pascher, Achim Schwermann, Nadine Siegling, Benedikt Steiner, Annika Szameitat, and Ben Thuy picked the screen-washing concentrate under the stereomicroscope. Georg Oleschinski is acknowledged for the SEM photographs. The manuscript benefitted greatly from comments and suggestions of Dr. Susan Evans and Prof. Dr. Gao Ke-Qin, and we sincerely thank both of them. Walter G. Joyce is acknowledged for a final language check. The project was funded by technical grants MA 1643/11 to TM and PF 219/21 to HUP of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as well as the Sino-German cooperation project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum Hannover, Abt. Wissenschaft und Sammlungen, Geowissenschaften, Willy-Brandt-Allee 5, 30169, Hannover, Germany

    Annette Richter

  2. Institut für Geowissenschaften, Universität Tübingen, Sigwartstraße 10, 72076, Tübingen, Germany

    Oliver Wings & Hans-Ulrich Pfretzschner

  3. Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Invalidenstraße 43, 10115, Berlin, Germany

    Oliver Wings

  4. Steinmann Institut für Geologie, Mineralogie und Paläontologie, Universität Bonn, Nussallee 8, 53115, Bonn, Germany

    Thomas Martin

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  1. Annette Richter
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  2. Oliver Wings
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  3. Hans-Ulrich Pfretzschner
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  4. Thomas Martin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Oliver Wings.

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This article is a contribution to the special issue “Triassic–Jurassic biodiversity, ecosystems, and climate in the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, Northwest China”

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Richter, A., Wings, O., Pfretzschner, HU. et al. Late Jurassic Squamata and possible Choristodera from the Junggar Basin, Xinjiang, Northwest China. Palaeobio Palaeoenv 90, 275–282 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-010-0037-x

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