The earliest known sauropod dinosaur.

Sauropods were a very successful group of dinosaurs during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, but their earlier history is poorly known. Until now, the earliest reported sauropod bones were from the Early Jurassic, and the only tentative evidence of earlier sauropods was in the form of controversial footprints. Here we report the discovery of an incomplete sauropod skeleton from the Late Triassic period of Thailand, which provides the first osteological evidence of pre-Jurassic sauropods. This dinosaur is markedly different from prosauropods and substantiates theoretical predictions that there was a fairly long period of sauropod evolution during the Triassic.

A new Late Eocene anthropoid primate from Thailand.

The fossil record of anthropoid primates from the Middle Eocene of South Asia is so far restricted to two genera (Pondaungia cotteri Pilgrim, 1937 and Amphipithecus mogaungensis Colbert, 1937 from the Eocene Pondaung deposits of Burma) whose anthropoid status and phylogenetic position have long been under debate because they represent the oldest highly derived fossil primates of anthropoid grade. Moreover, several new African taxa, some of which are even older, have been recently included in the suborder Anthropoidea, suggesting an African origin for this group. Conversely, new fossil primates recently discovered in China (Eosimias) have been related to the most primitive representatives of Anthropoidea, alternatively suggesting an Asian origin and a probable Asian radiation centre. We report here the discovery of a new anthropoid from the Thai Late Eocene locality of Krabi, which displays several additional anthropoid characters with regard to those of the Eocene Burmese genera. This species, which is about the size of the Fayum Aegyptopithecus, can be related to the Burmese forms, and it further provides strong additional evidence for a southeast Asian evolutionary centre for anthropoids.