Daxiatitan Temporal range:
Lower Cretaceous,
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Mounted skeleton cast | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | † Sauropodomorpha |
Clade: | † Sauropoda |
Clade: | † Macronaria |
Clade: | † Titanosauria |
Genus: | †
Daxiatitan You et al., 2008 |
Species: | †D. binglingi
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Binomial name | |
†Daxiatitan binglingi You et al., 2008
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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 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]
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]