A gram-negative, rod-shaped, aerobic, motile bacterium, strain Y1243-1(T), was isolated from an ice core drilled from Yuzhufeng Glacier, Tibetan Plateau, China. Cells had polar flagella. The novel strain shared 94.7-97.6 % 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity with the type strains of species of the genus Massilia. The novel isolate is thus classified in the genus Massilia. The major fatty acids of strain Y1243-1(T) were summed feature 3 (C16 : 1ω7c and/or iso-C15 : 0 2-OH) (43.98 %), C16 : 0 (27.86 %), C10 : 0 3-OH (7.10 %), C18 : 0 (6.95 %) and C18 : 1ω7c (5.01 %). The predominant isoprenoid quinone was Q-8. The DNA G+C content of strain Y1243-1(T) was 65.7 mol% (Tm). The major polar lipids were phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylglycerol and diphosphatidylglycerol. A number of phenotypic characteristics distinguished the novel isolate from the type strains of recognized Massilia species. Furthermore, in DNA-DNA hybridization tests, strain Y1243-1(T) shared 45 % relatedness with its closest phylogenetic relative, Massilia consociata CCUG 58010(T). From the genotypic and phenotypic data, it is evident that strain Y1243-1(T) represents a novel species of the genus Massilia, for which the name Massilia yuzhufengensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Y1243-1(T) ( = KACC 16569(T) = CGMCC 1.12041(T)).