Qiaowanlong
Artistic reconstruction of live Qiaowanlong kangxii.
- China, Gansu ( Xinminpu Group)
- Qiaowanlong kangxii
Qiaowanlong is a genus of sauropod dinosaur and an original representative of Titanosauriformes from the Late Cretaceous of China.
So far, a fragmentary skeleton is only known, which consists of a series of eight cervical vertebrae and the right pelvis and was discovered in the northwestern Gansu. This finding can be dated to the late Cretaceous ( Aptian to Albian ). Although he was initially designated as the first discovered in Asia representative of the Brachiosauridae, shows a recent study that he was more closely related to the original Titanosauriformen Erketu and Euhelopus. The only way is Qiaowanlong kangxii.
Description
The fossils probably belonged to an adult or nearly adult specimen. The eight known vertebrae were discovered together in the anatomical network; probably it was a series from the fourth to eleventh cervical vertebra. The cervical vertebrae were significantly shorter than the greatly elongated cervical vertebrae of Brachiosauriden: To measure, for example the seventh cervical vertebra 45 centimeters in length, while the corresponding measured at Giraffatitan 93 centimeters in length. The spinous processes of the cervical vertebrae were deeply forked, a feature that is found in related genera only in Erketu. The ischial ( ischium ) was reduced as with other representatives of the Somphospondyli and made only 70 % of the length of the pubis ( pubic ) from. In contrast to other genera of the pubis Crest of the ischium was very long and made about 60% of the shank length from.
System
In his first description Qiaowanlong was from You and Li ( 2009) classified within the Brachiosauridae. According to these authors Qiaowanlong showed similarities especially with Sauroposeidon. Daniel Ksepka and Mark Norell disagreed with this hypothesis and identified Qiaowanlong as representative of the original Somphospondyli, a group that Euhelopus, Erketu and includes Titanosauria with. Just as Erketu Qiaowanlong showed bifurcated spinous processes of the cervical vertebrae, which, according to these researchers suggests that both genera were closely related and formed a clade. Erketu and Qiaowanlong were probably closer to the Titanosauria used as with Euhelopus.
The possible relationships are shown in the following cladogram (simplified after Ksepka and Norell, 2010):
Brachiosauridae
Euhelopus
Erketu
Qiaowanlong
Titanosauria
Fund, history of discovery and naming
The only known find was unearthed in 2007 by a Chinese research group in the Jiuquan area in the northwestern Gansu. During the recovery of the fossil vertebrae, the series had to be broken down into two parts. The Fund ( holotype, specimen number FRDC GJ 07-14 ) was described in 2009 by Hai - Lu You and Da - Qing Li for the first time scientifically. The name Qiaowanlong ( Chinese qiao - "bridge", wan - " bent in a stream ," long - " Dragon" ) has Qiaowan, a cultural place near the discovery site. The second part of the species name, kangxii is named after Kangxi, a famous emperor of the Qing Dynasty.
The rocks of the discovery site belong to the middle layer member of Xinminpu group, a group of Yujingzi Basin. This group is known to science only recently and contained the fossils of several recently discovered dinosaurs, including the Therizinosauroidea Suzhousaurus, the Tyrannosauroidea Xiongguanlong, the Ornithomimosauria Beishanlong, a new Neoceratopsia and various other finds, including a bonebed of Hadrosauroidea Equijubus.