Gandititan
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''Gandititan'' is an
extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...
genus of
titanosaurian 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 ...
sauropod dinosaur from 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 ...
Zhoutian Formation The Zhoutian Formation () is a geological formation in Jiangxi, China. It has been dated to the late Cretaceous period, at about 96–90 Ma. Abundant egg fossils are known from the formation, in addition to dinosaurs such as ''Datai'' and ''Gandit ...
of China. The genus contains a single species, ''G. cavocaudatus'', known from a partial skeleton.


Discovery and naming

The ''Gandititan''
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 ...
specimen, JXGM-F-V1, was discovered in sediments of the
Zhoutian Formation The Zhoutian Formation () is a geological formation in Jiangxi, China. It has been dated to the late Cretaceous period, at about 96–90 Ma. Abundant egg fossils are known from the formation, in addition to dinosaurs such as ''Datai'' and ''Gandit ...
in Datangkeng,
Ganxian District Ganxian District () is a district in the municipal region of Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province. Administration Ganxian has an area of . The district executive, legislature and judiciary The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, ju ...
,
Ganzhou City Ganzhou (), alternately romanized as Kanchow, is a prefecture-level city in the south of Jiangxi province, China, bordering Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, and Hunan to the west. Its administrative seat is at Zhanggong District. Hist ...
,
Jiangxi Province ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...
, China. The specimen is a partial postcranial skeleton including an
articulated An articulated vehicle is a vehicle which has a permanent or semi-permanent coupling in its construction. This coupling works as a large pivot joint, allowing it to bend and turn more sharply. There are many kinds, from heavy equipment to buse ...
series of six
cervical vertebrae In tetrapods, cervical vertebrae (: vertebra) are the vertebrae of the neck, immediately below the skull. Truncal vertebrae (divided into thoracic and lumbar vertebrae in mammals) lie caudal (toward the tail) of cervical vertebrae. In saurop ...
, an articulated series of two partial
dorsal vertebrae In vertebrates, thoracic vertebrae compose the middle segment of the vertebral column, between the cervical vertebrae and the lumbar vertebrae. In humans, there are twelve thoracic vertebra (anatomy), vertebrae of intermediate size between the ce ...
, six
sacral vertebrae The sacrum (: sacra or sacrums), in human anatomy, is a triangular bone at the base of the spine that forms by the fusing of the sacral vertebrae (S1S5) between ages 18 and 30. The sacrum situates at the upper, back part of the pelvic cavity, ...
, and 17
caudal vertebrae Caudal vertebrae are the vertebrae of the tail in many vertebrates. In birds, the last few caudal vertebrae fuse into the pygostyle, and in apes, including humans, the caudal vertebrae are fused into the coccyx. In many reptiles, some of the caud ...
, some ribs, and a partial right
pelvic girdle The hip bone (os coxae, innominate bone, pelvic bone or coxal bone) is a large flat bone, constricted in the center and expanded above and below. In some vertebrates (including humans before puberty) it is composed of three parts: the Ilium (bone) ...
. In 2024, Han ''et al''. described ''Gandititan cavocaudatus'' as a new genus and species of basal titanosaurian sauropod based on these fossil remains. The generic name, "''Gandititan''", combines "Gan", in reference to Ganzhou City, the
pinyin Hanyu Pinyin, or simply pinyin, officially the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet, is the most common romanization system for Standard Chinese. ''Hanyu'' () literally means 'Han Chinese, Han language'—that is, the Chinese language—while ''pinyin' ...
word "di", meaning "Earth" (also the first syllable of "dizhi", meaning "geology"), and the word "titan", a common suffix for giant sauropod names, referencing the pre-Olympian gods of
Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...
. While the authors intended "Gandi" to honor geological studies in Ganzhou, they also note the similarity to the
Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
"gandr", referencing magical beings. The
specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
, "''cavocaudatus''", combines the
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
words "cavum", meaning "cavity" and "cauda", meaning "tail", alluding to the pattern seen in the caudal vertebrae.


Description

''Gandititan'' is estimated at being long.


Classification

Han ''et al.'' (2024) entered ''Gandititan'' into a
phylogenetic analysis In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical data ...
and recovered it as the
sister taxon In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and ...
to '' Abdarainurus'' in a clade of basal titanosaurs including ''
Andesaurus ''Andesaurus'' ( ; "Andes lizard") is a genus of basal titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur which existed during the middle of the Cretaceous Period in South America. Like most sauropods, it would have had a small head on the end of a long neck and a ...
'' and an assortment of East Asian somphospondylans. Earlier, in the preferred tree of their 2020 description of ''Abdarainurus'', Averianov & Lopatin recovered a similar clade of basal titanosaurs, with ''Abdarainurus'' as the sister taxon to the clade containing ''
Andesaurus ''Andesaurus'' ( ; "Andes lizard") is a genus of basal titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur which existed during the middle of the Cretaceous Period in South America. Like most sauropods, it would have had a small head on the end of a long neck and a ...
'' and ''
Huabeisaurus ''Huabeisaurus'' (, meaning "North China lizard") was a genus of dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian to Maastrichtian stages, around 99.7–70.6 million years ago). It was a sauropod which lived in what is present-day northern China. Th ...
''. The results of the phylogenetic analyses of Han ''et al''. are shown in the cladogram below:


References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q124309835 Titanosauria Dinosaur genera Cenomanian dinosaurs Turonian dinosaurs Taxa named by Xu Xing Fossil taxa described in 2024 Dinosaurs of China