''Daxiatitan'' is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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 ...

known from the

Lower Cretaceous Lower may refer to: * ''Lower'' (album), 2025 album by Benjamin Booker * Lower (surname) * Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) * Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also * Nizhny {{Disambiguation ...

Gansu Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. Its type and only species is ''Daxiatitan binglingi''. It is known from a single partial skeleton consisting of most of the neck and back vertebrae, two tail vertebrae, a

shoulder blade The scapula (: scapulae or scapulas), also known as the shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus (upper arm bone) with the clavicle (collar bone). Like their connected bones, the scapulae are paired, with each scapula on either side ...

, and a

thigh bone The femur (; : femurs or femora ), or thigh bone is the only bone in the thigh — the region of the lower limb between the hip and the knee. In many four-legged animals the femur is the upper bone of the hindleg. The top of the femur fits in ...

. At the time of its discovery in 2008, ''Daxiatitan'' was regarded as potentially the largest known dinosaur from China.

Taxonomy

''Daxiatitan'' and its

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 species ''Daxiatitan binglingi'' were named by You Hailu, Li Daqing, Zhou Lingqi, and Ji Qiang in 2008. 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 ...

of ''D. binglingi'', GSLTZP03-001, was collected from the Hekou Group, in

Gansu Province Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

, and consists of ten cervical, ten dorsal, and two caudal vertebrae, cervical and dorsal ribs, a haemal arch, a scapulocoracoid, and a femur. The genus name refers to the

Daxia River The Daxia River () or Sangchu () is a tributary of the Yellow River in southern Gansu province in China's west. The Daxia River starts in eastern Huangnan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Qinghai, then flows easterly through northern Gannan Tib ...

, a tributary of the

Yellow River The Yellow River, also known as Huanghe, is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of and a Drainage basin, watershed of . Beginning in the Bayan H ...

that runs through the area where the type specimen was found, and the species name refers to

Bingling Temple The Bingling Temple () is a series of grottoes filled with Buddhist sculpture carved into natural caves and caverns in a canyon along the Yellow River. It lies just north of where the Yellow River empties into the Liujiaxia Reservoir. Administrat ...

, which is located in the region. ''Daxiatitan'' was initially described as a basal

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 thr ...

, and most subsequent studies have regarded it as a basal titanosaur or as a somphospondylan close to Titanosauria in

Euhelopodidae Euhelopodidae is a family of sauropod dinosaurs of disputed membership and affinities, which contains '' Euhelopus'' and its close relatives. Most proposed euhelopodids are from East Asia. Euhelopodidae was first recognized by Carl Wiman in 1929 ...

. In 2020, a phylogenetic analysis conducted by Moore et al. found that ''Daxiatitan'' and ''Euhelopus'' may form a clade with

mamenchisaurids Mamenchisauridae is a family of sauropod dinosaurs belonging to the Eusauropoda known from the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous of Asia and Africa. Mamenchisaurids are characterized by their proportionately extremely long necks. Some members of the ...

Description

''Daxiatitan'' was an exceptionally large dinosaur, among the largest known from China. Its length has been estimated as , and its mass has been estimated as 23 tonnes. The neck of ''Daxiatitan'' is estimated to have been approximately long, making it among the longer-necked sauropods, although still surpassed by the 15-meter neck of some of the largest mamenchisaurids and

diplodocids Diplodocids, or members of the family Diplodocidae ("double beams"), are a group of sauropod dinosaurs. The family includes some of the longest creatures ever to walk the Earth, including ''Diplodocus'' and '' Supersaurus'', some of which may hav ...

Footnotes

References

{{Portal bar, Dinosaurs, Paleontology, China Titanosauria Dinosaur genera Aptian dinosaurs Taxa named by Hailu You Fossil taxa described in 2008 Dinosaurs of China