A new species of Xinpusaurus (Thalattosauria) from the Upper Triassic of China

A new species of Xinpusaurus Yin in Yin et al., 2000 (Thalattosauria, Thalattosauridae), is described from the Wayao Member of the Falang Formation (Tuvalian, Carnian, Upper Triassic) of Guanling County in Guizhou, southwestern China. It is the third thalattosaur species known from the Guarding faunal assemblage of marine reptiles. The type and only specimen consists of an entire skeleton, including a complete skull. It differs from the type species, X. suni, by its smaller adult size, the larger nasal, the more slender angular and low retroarticular process, the shape of the cervical neural spines, the number of presacral vertebrae, the large size of the scapula, the shape of the radius, the presence of a well ossified carpus, the more slender femur, the smaller hindfin, the presence of a complete row of distal tarsal ossifications, and the proportions of the metatarsals. It is consequently referred to a new species, Xinpusaurus kohi. A new analysis of thalattosaur interrelationships based on 30 cranial and postcranial characters corroborates a sister-group relationship between Xinpusaurus and Nectosaurus from the Carman of California.