''Baotianmansaurus'' (named after the
Baotianman National Nature Reserve) is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...
of
titanosaur
Titanosaurs (or titanosaurians; members of the group Titanosauria) were a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs, including genera from all seven continents. The titanosaurs were the last surviving group of long-necked sauropods, with taxa still th ...
sauropod
Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their ...
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
. Its fossils have been found in
Upper Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', ...
rocks in
Henan
Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...
,
China, within the
Gaogou Formation. The
type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...
is ''B. henanensis'', described in 2009. The
holotype
A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of seve ...
is 41H III-0200. Remains of the fossils were vertebrae, ribs and scapula fragments.
It was probably a close relative of ''
Opisthocoelicaudia
''Opisthocoelicaudia'' is a genus of sauropod dinosaur of the Late Cretaceous Period discovered in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. The type species is ''Opisthocoelicaudia skarzynskii''. A well-preserved skeleton lacking only the head and neck was ...
'' and ''
Dongyangosaurus
''Dongyangosaurus'' is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous. The only species is ''Dongyangosaurus sinensis'', from which only a single fragmentary skeleton is known, coming from the Zhejiang province of eastern Chi ...
'' in
Saltasauridae
Saltasauridae (named after the Salta region of Argentina where they were first found) is a family of armored herbivorous sauropods from the Upper Cretaceous. They are known from fossils found in South America, Asia, North America, and Europ ...
.
References
Late Cretaceous dinosaurs of Asia
Titanosaurs
Fossil taxa described in 2009
Paleontology in Henan
Taxa named by Lü Junchang
{{Cretaceous-reptile-stub