and early Dinosauria: evolutionary and biomechanical implications for Saurischia. *Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology*, 38, e1427593.

Ullmann, P.V., Bonnan, M.F. & Lacovara, K.J. (2017) Characterizing the evolution of wide-gauge features in stylopodial limb elements of titanosauriform sauropods via geometric morphometrics. *The Anatomical Record*, 300, 1618–1635.

Upchurch, P. (1998) The phylogenetic relationships of sauropod dinosaurs. *Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society*, 124, 43–103.

Upchurch, P., Barrett, P.M. & Galton, P.M. (2007) A phylogenetic analysis of basal sauropodomorph relationships: implications for the origin of sauropod dinosaurs. *Special Papers in Palaeontology*, 77, 57–90.

Wang, Y.-M., You, H.-L. & Wang, T. (2017) A new basal sauropodiform dinosaur from the lower Jurassic of Yunnan Province, China. *Scientific Reports*, 7, 41881.

Wedel, M.J. (2003) The evolution of vertebral pneumaticity in sauropod dinosaurs. *Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology*, 23, 344–357.

Wedel, M.J. (2005) Postcranial skeletal pneumaticity in sauropods and its implications for mass estimates. In: Curry Rogers, K. & Wilson, J.A. (Eds.) *The sauropods: evolution and paleobiology*. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, pp. 201–228.

Wiley, D.F., Amenta, N., Alcantara, D.A., Ghosh, D., Kil, Y.J., Delson, E. et al. (2005) Evolutionary morphing. In: *Proceedings of IEEE visualization 2005*. IEEE: Piscataway, NJ, pp. 431–438.

Wilhite, D. (2005) Variation in the appendicular skeleton of north American sauropod dinosaurs: taxonomic implications. In: Tidwell, V. & Carpenter, K. (Eds.) *Thunder-lizards: the sauropodomorph dinosaurs*. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 268–301.

Wilhite, R. (2003) Biomechanical reconstruction of the appendicular skeleton in three north American Jurassic sauropods. PhD, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge.

Wilson, J.A. (2005a) Overview of sauropod phylogeny and evolution. In: Rogers, K.C. & Wilson, J.A. (Eds.) *The sauropods: evolution and paleobiology*. Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 15–49.

Wilson, J.A. (2005b) Integrating ichnofossil and body fossil records to estimate locomotor posture and spatiotemporal distribution of early sauropod dinosaurs: a stratocladistic approach. *Paleobiology*, 31, 400–423.

Wilson, J.A. & Carrano, M.T. (1999) Titanosaurs and the origin of “wide-gauge” trackways: A biomechanical and systematic perspective on sauropod locomotion. *Paleobiology*, 25, 252–267.

Wilson, J.A. & Sereno, P.C. (1998) Early evolution and higher-level phylogeny of sauropod dinosaurs. *Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology*, 18, 1–79.

Xing, L., Lockley, M.G., Bonnan, M.F., Marty, D., Klein, H., Liu, Y. et al. (2015) Late Jurassic–early Cretaceous trackways of small-sized

sauropods from China: new discoveries, ichnotaxonomy and sauropod manus morphology. *Cretaceous Research*, 56, 470–481.

Yates, A.M. (2003) A new species of the primitive dinosaur *Thecodontosaurus* (Saurischia: Sauropodomorpha) and its implications for the systematics of early dinosaurs. *Journal of Systematic Palaeontology*, 1, 1–42.

Yates, A.M. (2004) *Anchisaurus polyzelus* (Hitchcock): the smallest known sauropod dinosaur and the evolution of gigantism among sauropodomorph dinosaurs. *Postilla*, 230, 1–58.

Yates, A.M. (2007) The first complete skull of the Triassic dinosaur *Melanorosaurus* Haughton (Sauropodomorpha: Anchisauria). *Special Papers in Palaeontology*, 77, 9–55.

Yates, A.M., Bonnan, M.F., Neveling, J., Chinsamy, A. & Blackbeard, M.G. (2010) A new transitional sauropodomorph dinosaur from the early Jurassic of South Africa and the evolution of sauropod feeding and quadrupedalism. *Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences*, 277, 787–794.

Yates, A.M. & Kitching, J.W. (2003) The earliest known sauropod dinosaur and the first steps towards sauropod locomotion. *Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B: Biological Sciences*, 270, 1753–1758.

Yates, A.M., Wedel, M.J. & Bonnan, M.F. (2012) The early evolution of postcranial skeletal pneumaticity in sauropodomorph dinosaurs. *Acta Palaeontologica Polonica*, 57, 85–100.

Zhang, Q.-N., You, H.-L., Wang, T. & Chatterjee, S. (2018) A new sauropodiform dinosaur with a ‘sauropodan’skull from the lower Jurassic Lufeng formation of Yunnan Province, China. *Scientific reports*, 8, 1–12.

## SUPPORTING INFORMATION

Additional supporting information may be found in the online version of the article at the publisher's website.

**How to cite this article:** Lefebvre, R., Houssaye, A., Mallison, H., Cornette, R., Allain, R. (2022) A path to gigantism: Three-dimensional study of the sauropodomorph limb long bone shape variation in the context of the emergence of the sauropod bauplan. *Journal of Anatomy*. 241:297–336. https://doi.org/10.1111/joa.13646