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Lufengosaurus (, meaning "Lufeng lizard") is a genus of Massospondylidae dinosaur which lived during the Early Jurassic period in what is now southwestern China."Lufengosaurus." In: Dodson, Peter & Britt, Brooks & Carpenter, Kenneth & Forster, Catherine A. & Gillette, David D. & Norell, Mark A. & Olshevsky, George & Parrish, J. Michael & Weishampel, David B. The Age of Dinosaurs. Publications International, LTD. p. 38. .
A second species of Lufengosaurus, L. magnus, was also named by Young in 1940 in the same paper as Lufengosaurus huenei and would be fully described by him in 1947. As its specific name suggests, with the word magnus meaning "the large one" in Latin, this species was considered separate from L. huenei due to its significantly larger size, with it being up to a third larger than L. huenei in length. However, most authors have regarded it as a junior synonym of L. huenei, with its specimens being said to simply represent larger individuals of the type species.
Another "Prosauropods" Young named in 1940, Gyposaurus, was noted by him to be distinct from Lufengosaurus on behalf of the limbs being at least 50% smaller, though similarities in overall form were noted. This genus has subsequently been referred to Lufengosaurus on two separate occasions: once by Peter Galton in 1976 and once in a 2017 SVP presentation by Wang and colleagues. The referral is however doubted by some.
Lufengosaurus would be referred to another genus yet again in the 1980s, with Michael Cooper suggesting that Lufengosaurus and Yunnanosaurus were species of the genus Massospondylus 1981.Cooper M. (1981) "The prosauropod dinosaur Massospondylus carinatus Owen from Zimbabwe: its biology, mode of life and phylogenetic significance". Occasional Papers Of The National Museums and Monuments of Rhodesia Series B Natural Sciences 6(10): 689-840 However, a reanalysis in 2005 by Paul Barrett and colleagues, performed on the skull of Lufengosaurus huenei established it firmly as a valid genus separate from both Massospondylus and Yunnanosaurus based on craniodental characteristics. This same 2005 study would provide an extensive and detailed redescription of the cranial osteology of the holotype skull of the animal.
The year 1985 saw Zhao Xijin name a new species of the animal in a list of Jurassic reptiles from China. Zhao named it Lufengosaurus "changduensis", with the naming of the animal being prompted by the recovery of a specimen from Tibet.Zhao X., 1985, "The Jurassic Reptilia". In: Wang, Cheng and Wang (eds.). The Jurassic System of China. Stratigraphy of China, Volume 11. pp. 286-289 The species has however remained undescribed and thus a nomen nudum, with neither the reported Tibetan specimen nor any other material being formally assigned to it after it was named.
In 2015, preserved collagen protein was found in a Lufengosaurus fossil by an international team led by Yao-Chang Lee of Taiwan's National Synchrotron Radiation Research Center. The protein, described in Nature Communications (2017 January 31), was over 100 million years older than any previously recorded fossil protein, having sizeable implications for our understanding of protein preservation.
About thirty major specimens have been discovered, including those of juveniles.Sekiya, T. & Dong, Z. 2010. "A New Juvenile Specimen of Lufengosaurus huenei Young, 1941 (Dinosauria: Prosauropoda) from the Lower Jurassic Lower Lufeng Formation of Yunnan, Southwest China". Acta Geologica Sinica 84(1): 11-21 In 1958 a specimen of Lufengosaurus was the first complete dinosaur skeleton mounted in China; a commemorative postage stamp of 8 yuan was issued on 15 April 1958 to celebrate the event, the first time ever a dinosaur was depicted on a stamp. The skeleton is now on display in the Paleozoological Museum of China in Beijing.
Barret, Upchurch and Wang recovered Lufengosaurus as being the sister taxon to Gyposaurus sinensis in their 2005 cladistic analysis. A differing result was recovered from a cladistic analysis done by Fernando E. Novas and colleagues in 2011, which recovered the animal as the sister taxon to Glacialisaurus hammeri. This result was replicated by Oliver W. M. Rauhut and colleagues' 2020 analysis. A simplified version of the resulting cladogram, not showing the part including the Sauropodiform taxa, is shown below.
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