Gongxianosaurus  Gongxianosaurus is a genus of basal sauropod dinosaur from the early Jurassic Period (Toarcian stage). The only species is "Gongxianosaurus shibeiensis". Based on four fragmentary to complete specimens found in China (Sichuan Province), it is one of the most completely known early sauropods. The skeleton is known in large part, missing both the hand and the majority of the skull. "Gongxianosaurus" was firstly named and described in a short note published in 1998; however, a comprehensive description has yet to be published. "Gongxianosaurus shibeiensis" was named for the place it was found, near the village Shibei in Gong County (珙县; Pinyin: Gǒng Xiàn). "Gongxianosaurus" may have reached in length. Like other sauropods, it moved quadrupedally (on four legs), as indicated by the elongated fore limbs that reached 70 to 75% of hind limb length. The pedal phalanges were short and robust, as typical for sauropods. The pedal phalangeal formula, counting the number of phalanges for each digit starting from the innermost, was 2-3-4-5-1. All but the outermost digit ended in claws. Unlike in other sauropods, pleurocoels (deep lateral excavations of the vertebrae) were absent; thus, the vertebrae would have been quite massive. The sacrum was made of three fused sacral vertebrae, fewer than in later sauropods. The chevrons were unbifurcated. An important characteristic of sauropod limbs is their reduced ossification – the tendency to replace bone by cartilage. "Gongxianosaurus" is the only known sauropod with ossified distal tarsals. Thus, either "Gongxianosaurus" was one of the basalmost sauropods, or ossified distal tarsals were present in other early sauropods but are simply not preserved due to the fragmentation of the specimens. Because the fossils are not fully described yet, available character information that can be used in cladistic analyses is limited. Thus, only few cladistical analyses have incorporated "Gongxianosaurus". A recent analysis by Apaldetti et al. (2011) suggests that "Gongxianosaurus" was more basal than "Vulcanodon", "Tazoudasaurus" and "Isanosaurus", but more derived than the early sauropods "Antetonitrus", "Lessemsaurus", "Blikanasaurus", "Camelotia" and "Melanorosaurus".