''Jiangshanosaurus'' is a genus of herbivorous titanosauriform

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 b ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

that lived in China approximately 92-88

million years ago Million years ago, abbreviated as Mya, Myr (megayear) or Ma (megaannum), is a unit of time equal to (i.e. years), or approximately 31.6 teraseconds. Usage Myr is in common use in fields such as Earth science and cosmology. Myr is also used w ...

, during the

Turonian The Turonian is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy, ICS' geologic timescale, the second age (geology), age in the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch, or a stage (stratigraphy), stage in the Upper Cretaceous series (stratigraphy), ...

Coniacian The Coniacian is an age or stage in the geologic timescale. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous Epoch or Upper Cretaceous Series and spans the time between 89.8 ± 1 Ma and 86.3 ± 0.7 Ma (million years ago). The Coniacian is preceded by ...

stage of the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent 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 ''cre ...

Discovery and naming

In 1977 and 1978 a sauropod skeleton was excavated by paleontologists Wei Feng, Wu Weitang and Kang Ximin in the Jinhua Formation of Lixian Village,

Jiangshan Jiangshan () is a county-level city located in Quzhou prefecture-level city, in the southwest of Zhejiang Province, China, bordering Jiangxi province to the west. Located about 250 kilometers southwest of Hangzhou, the provincial capital, it is ...

county, in the eastern Chinese province of

Zhejiang ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

. The

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

and only named species, ''Jiangshanosaurus lixianensis'', was formally described by Tang Feng, Kang, Jin Xingsheng, Wei and Wu in 2001. The

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

, ZNM M1322, of ''J.lixianensis'' includes elements of the left shoulder, five back vertebrae, three tail vertebrae, the

pubic bone In vertebrates, the pubis or pubic bone () forms the lower and anterior part of each side of the hip bone. The pubis is the most forward-facing (ventral and anterior) of the three bones that make up the hip bone. The left and right pubic bones ar ...

s, the ischia, and a left femur.Feng Tang, Xi-Min Kang, Xing-Sheng Jin, Feng Wei, Wei-Tang Wu (2001
"A New Sauropod Dinosaur of Cretaceous From Jiangshan, Zhejiang Province"
in: ''Vertebrata PalAsiatica.'' Bd. 39, Nr. 4, pp. 272–281. The genus name refers to Jiangshan County; the specific name refers to the village of Lixian. In 2019, Philip Mannion e.a. redescribed the holotype.Philip D. Mannion; Paul Upchurch; Xingsheng Jin; Wenjie Zheng. 2019. "New information on the Cretaceous sauropod dinosaurs of Zhejiang Province, China: impact on Laurasian titanosauriform phylogeny and biogeography". ''Royal Society Open Science''. 6(8): Article ID 191057

Description

Size

According to paleontologist Thomas R. Holtz Jr. the exact size of this sauropod cannot be determined.

Gregory S. Paul Gregory Scott Paul (born December 24, 1954) is an American freelance researcher, author and illustrator who works in paleontology. He is best known for his work and research on theropoda, theropod dinosaurs and his detailed illustrations, both l ...

estimated its length at eleven meters and its weight at 2500 kg.

Distinguishing traits

In 2019, Mannion e.a. indicated two distinguishing traits. They were autapomorphies, unique derived characters. In the vertebrae positioned at the transition between the tail base and the middle tail, the lower ends of the ''laminae spinoprezygapophyseales'', the ridges running from the

neural spine Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spinal ...

towards the front articulation processes, are placed to the inside of these processes, the

prezygapophyses The articular process or zygapophysis ( + apophysis) of a vertebra is a projection of the vertebra that serves the purpose of fitting with an adjacent vertebra. The actual region of contact is called the ''articular facet''.Moore, Keith L. et al. ...

, instead of touching them. The lower shaft of the ischium ends in a small process, formed as a hook, on its top outer side.

Phylogeny

Although ''Jiangshanosaurus'' initially defied precise placement within

Titanosauria Titanosaurs (or titanosaurians; members of the group Titanosauria) were a diverse group of Sauropoda, sauropod dinosaurs, including genera from all seven continents. The titanosaurs were the last surviving group of long-necked sauropods, with tax ...

, in 2017 paper considered it to be outside

Lithostrotia Lithostrotia is a clade of derived titanosaur sauropods that lived during the Early Cretaceous and Late Cretaceous. The group was defined by Upchurch ''et al.'' in 2004 as the most recent common ancestor of ''Malawisaurus'' and ''Saltasaurus'' an ...

. According to the 2019 study, ''Jiangshanosaurus'' was placed in the Somphospondyli in a basal position, outside the Titanosauria.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q140114 Macronaria Dinosaur genera Turonian dinosaurs Fossil taxa described in 2001 Dinosaurs of China