Daxiatitan
Extinct genus of dinosaurs
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Daxiatitan[a] is a genus of sauropod dinosaur known from the Lower Cretaceous of Gansu, China. Its type and only species is Daxiatitan binglingi.[b] It is known from a single partial skeleton consisting of most of the neck and back vertebrae, two tail vertebrae, a shoulder blade, and a thigh bone. At the time of its discovery in 2008, Daxiatitan was regarded as potentially the largest known dinosaur from China.[1]
| Daxiatitan Temporal range: Lower Cretaceous, | |
|---|---|
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| Mounted skeleton cast | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Clade: | †Macronaria |
| Clade: | †Titanosauria |
| Genus: | †Daxiatitan You et al., 2008 |
| Species: | †D. binglingi |
| Binomial name | |
| †Daxiatitan binglingi You et al., 2008 | |
Taxonomy
Daxiatitan and its type and only species Daxiatitan binglingi were named by You Hailu, Li Daqing, Zhou Lingqi, and Ji Qiang in 2008. The holotype of D. binglingi, GSLTZP03-001, was collected from the Hekou Group, in Gansu Province, and consists of ten cervical, ten dorsal, and two caudal vertebrae, cervical and dorsal ribs, a haemal arch, a scapulocoracoid, and a femur.[1]
The genus name refers to the Daxia River, a tributary of the Yellow River that runs through the area where the type specimen was found, and the species name refers to Bingling Temple, which is located in the region.[1]
Daxiatitan was initially described as a basal titanosaur,[1] and most subsequent studies have regarded it as a basal titanosaur or as a somphospondylan close to Titanosauria in Euhelopodidae. In 2020, a phylogenetic analysis conducted by Moore et al. found that Daxiatitan and Euhelopus may form a clade with mamenchisaurids.[2]
Description
Daxiatitan was an exceptionally large dinosaur, among the largest known from China.[1] Its length has been estimated as 23–30 meters (75–98 ft),[c] and its mass has been estimated as 23 tonnes.[4] The neck of Daxiatitan is estimated to have been approximately 12 metres (39 ft) long,[d] making it among the longer-necked sauropods, although still surpassed by the 15-meter neck of some of the largest mamenchisaurids and diplodocids.[5]
Footnotes
- Chinese: 大夏巨龙; pinyin: Dàxiàjùlóng; meaning "Daxia giant" after a tributary of the Yellow River
- Based on the proportions of Euhelopus and Mamenchisaurus, the discoverers of Daxiatitan estimated its length to be up to 30 meters (98 ft).[1] Thomas Holtz later estimated its length at 23 meters (75 ft).[3] In 2020, Molina-Pérez and Larramendi estimated its length as 25 meters (82 ft).[4]
