Klamelisaurus (meaning "Kelameili Mountains lizard") is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Shishugou Formation of China. The type species is Klamelisaurus gobiensis, which was named by Zhao Xijin in 1993, based on a partial skeleton discovered in 1982 near the abandoned town of Jiangjunmiao. Zhao described Klamelisaurus as the only member of a new subfamily, Klamelisaurinae, among the now-defunct primitive sauropod order Bothrosauropodoidea. Since Zhao's description, Klamelisaurus received limited attention from researchers until Andrew Moore and colleagues redescribed it in 2020. A relatively large sauropod measuring approximately 13 metres (43 ft) long, with half of the length being its neck, Klamelisaurus can be distinguished from its relatives by characteristics of the vertebrae and humerus. Phylogenetic analyses have suggested that Klamelisaurus belonged to the Mamenchisauridae, a group of Middle to Late Jurassic and primarily Chinese sauropods, although its close relatives also include a mamenchisaurid from Thailand. While paleontologist Gregory S. Paul suggested that Bellusaurus, known only from juvenile specimens, was a juvenile Klamelisaurus, this proposal has been rejected based on anatomical evidence, and the fact that Bellusaurus was geologically younger.
Discovery and naming
Between 1981 and 1985, a field crew from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) conducted excavations in the Junggar Basin of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region of China, as part of a research project titled "Evolution of the Junggar Basin and the Formation of Petroleum". The work was conducted in cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Xinjiang Office of Petroleum. In 1982, these excavations uncovered the skeleton of a sauropod dinosaur 35 kilometres (22 mi) north of the now-abandoned town of Jiangjunmiao, located in the eastern Junggar Basin. The skeleton was excavated and collected in 1984 by the IVPP field team. The specimen, which was catalogued under the specimen number IVPP V9492, consists of teeth, most of the vertebral column (save for the first seven cervical vertebrae (neck vertebrae) and the end of the tail), ribs, the right shoulder girdle and arm (scapula, coracoid, humerus, ulna, radius, and phalanges), and the right hip girdle and leg (ilium, pubis, femur, tibia, fibula, and astragalus). At the time of its discovery, the specimen was already weathered. After it was transported to Beijing, with preparation and restoration work beginning in 1985, it deteriorated further due to fluctuations in temperature and humidity. Nearly all of the bones underwent reconstruction and painting, and many of them were encased in a metal armature for display. The referral of the fragmentary teeth to the specimen was unexplained, and they can no longer be located along with two ribs, two carpals of the wrist, a calcaneum of the ankle, and some bones of the tail. They also located several chevrons (from the underside of the tail), the bottom end of the left femur, and parts of the left hand that were not mentioned by Zhao. In 1993, Xijing Zhao described IVPP V9492 as the type specimen of a new genus and species, Klamelisaurus gobiensis. Due to the condition of the specimen, he only conducted a "simple description". The generic name Klamelisaurus refers to the Kelameili Mountains to the north of Jiangjunmiao, of which "Klameli" is a variant spelling. The specific name gobiensis refers to the Gobi Desert, in which Jiangjunmiao is located. Following Zhao's description, IVPP V9492 received limited attention in the literature until it was redescribed by Andrew Moore and colleagues in 2020. They noted that the specimen's reconstruction had been altered since Zhao's description, namely by the addition of a frontward-projecting process on the 15th cervical rib and the removal of a fabricated connection to the centrum (vertebral body).
Description
Klamelisaurus was described as a "relatively large" sauropod by Zhao in 1993. In 2016, American paleontologist Gregory S. Paul estimated its length at 13 metres (43 ft) in length and 6 tonnes (5.9 long tons; 6.6 short tons) in weight, albeit based on the hypothesis that Klamelisaurus represented the adult form of Bellusaurus. In 2020, Moore and colleagues listed a number of characteristics (following a 2013 study by Michael Taylor and Mathew Wedel) which identified the type specimen as an adult: the lack of unfused sutures in the vertebral centra; the fusion of the sacrals (hip vertebrae), the fusion of the cervical ribs to their corresponding centra; and the fusion of the scapula and coracoid in the shoulder.
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