干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

New material of the Early Cretaceous Japanese lizard Sakurasaurus has been recovered from the locality of Kaseki-kabe, Kuwajima District, Hakusan City. Remains of a single disarticulated individual permit a more comprehensive description, reconstruction and phylogenetic analysis of this taxon. Although the original study, based largely on jaw material, suggested scincomorph affinity, a new cladistic analysis places Sakurasaurus on the scleroglossan stem as a sister taxon of the Chinese genus Yabeinosaurus. Sakurasaurus and Yabeinosaurus provide another link between the faunal assemblage of the Japanese Tetori Group and those of the roughly contemporaneous and geographically adjacent Jehol Group of China, although there are also many differences. A similar pattern is revealed by broader comparisons between the Sino-Japanese lizard faunas and those of other roughly contemporaneous Asian horizons.