Huanghetitan

Chordata

Huanghetitan
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Sauropodomorpha
Infraorder: Sauropoda
Node: Titanosauriformes
Family: Huanghetitanidae
Lu et al., 2007
Genus: Huanghetitan
You et al., 2006
Type species
Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis
You et al., 2006
Species
  • H. liujiaxiaensis You et al., 2006
  • H. ruyangensis Lu et al., 2007

Huanghetitan (meaning "Yellow River titan"), is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the early Cretaceous Period. It was a basal titanosauriform which lived in what is now Gansu, China.

The type species, Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis, was described by You et al. in 2006. It is known from fragmentary materials including two caudal vertebrae, an almost complete sacrum, rib fragments, and the left shoulder girdle, and was discovered in the eastern part of the Lanzhou Basin (Hekou group) in the Gansu Province in 2004.[1]

A second species, H. ruyangensis, was described in 2007 from the Magchuan Formation of Ruyang County, China (Henan Province). It is known from a partial vertebral column and several ribs, the size of which (the largest approaches 3 m (10 ft)) indicate it had among the deepest body cavities of any known dinosaur.[2] This second species, along with its local relatives Daxiatitan and Ruyangosaurus, is one of the biggest dinosaurs ever found in Asia, and possibly one of the largest in the world.

In 2007, Lu et al. created a new family for Huanghetitan, the Huangetitanidae.[2] They are a primitive group by Cretaceous sauropod standards, near the very base of the Titanosauria between Euhelopus and the Andesauridae.

References

  1. ^ You, H., Li, D., Zhou, L., and Ji, Q., (2006). "Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis. a New Sauropod Dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Hekou Group of Lanzhou Basin, Gansu Province, China." Geological Review, 52 (5): 668-674.
  2. ^ a b Lu J., Xu, L., Zhang, X., Hu, W., Wu, Y., Jia, S., and Ji, Q. (2007). "A new gigantic sauropod dinosaur with the deepest known body cavity from the Cretaceous of Asia." Acta Geologica Sinica, 81: 167-176.

External links