''Tienshanosaurus'' (meaning " Tienshan lizard") 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 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 ...

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 ...

from the Late

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

. It was a

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 ...

which lived in what is now

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 ...

. Only one species is known, ''Tienshanosaurus chitaiensis'', which was named and described in

1937 Events January * January 1 – Anastasio Somoza García becomes President of Nicaragua. * January 5 – Water levels begin to rise in the Ohio River in the United States, leading to the Ohio River flood of 1937, which continues into Feb ...

Discovery and classification

On 11 September 1928 Chinese

geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

professor Yuan Fu ("P.L. Yüan") discovered in

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

the remains of about thirty adult and three juvenile sauropods, which he uncovered during the following weeks. The finds, including a fossilized egg, were sent to

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

where they ultimately became part of the collection of the

Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology The Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP; ) of People's Republic of China, China is a research institution and collections repository for fossils, including many dinosaur and pterosaur specimens (many from the Yixian For ...

. In 1937

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

Yang Zhongjian Yang Zhongjian, also Yang Chung-chien (; 1 June 1897 – 15 January 1979), courtesy name Keqiang (), also known as C.C. (Chung Chien) Young, was a Chinese paleontologist and zoologist. He was one of China's foremost vertebrate paleontologists. ...

("C.C. Young") named the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, 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 spe ...

''Tienshanosaurus chitaiensis''.C.-C. Young, 1937, "A new dinosaurian from Sinkiang", ''Palaeontologia Sinica'', New Series C, Whole Series No. 132 213: 1-29 The generic name, suggested by Yuan, refers to the

Tian Shan The Tian Shan, also known as the Tengri Tagh or Tengir-Too, meaning the "Mountains of God/Heaven", is a large system of mountain ranges in Central Asia. The highest peak is Jengish Chokusu at high and located in Kyrgyzstan. Its lowest point is ...

, the "heavenly mountains". 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 ...

refers to the location Chitai or Qitai. 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 ...

, IVPP AS 40002-3, was found near Paikushan, Luanshantze, in

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

of the

Shishugou Formation The Shishugou Formation ( zh, s=石树沟组, t=石樹溝組, p=Shíshùgōu Zǔ) is a geological formation in Xinjiang, China. Its strata date back to the Late Jurassic period. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered fro ...

dating from the Oxfordian. It consists of elements of the

postcrania The postcranium ("behind the cranium"; plural: postcrania) or postcranial skeleton in zoology and vertebrate paleontology is the skeleton apart from the skull. The postcranium encompasses the axial skeleton, which includes the entirety of the verte ...

. A considerable part of the skeleton is known but not the skull or the lower jaws. The body length has been estimated at twelve metres. In 1991

Ralph Molnar Ralph E. Molnar is a paleontologist who had been Curator of Mammals at the Queensland Museum and more recently associated with the Museum of Northern Arizona. He is also a research associate at the Texas Natural Science Centre. He co-authored descr ...

renamed ''Euhelopus zdanskyi'' to ''Tienshanosaurus zdanskyi'', despite the species having priority over ''T. chitaiensis'', made possible by the fact that ''

Euhelopus ''Euhelopus'' is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived between 145 and 133 million years ago during the Berriasian and Valanginian ages of the Early Cretaceous in what is now Shandong Province in China. It was a large quadrupedal herbivore. Lik ...

'' is a renaming of the earlier ''Helopus''. Meanwhile,

Valérie Martin-Rolland Valerie is generally a feminine given name, derived directly from the French ''Valérie'' (a traditionally female name). Valéry or Valery is a masculine given name in parts of Europe (particularly in France and Russia), as well as a common surna ...

renamed ''T. chitaiensis'' into ''Euhelopus chitaiensis''. Due to the fragmentary nature of the material and a limited description, it has not been easy to establish the affinities of ''Tienshanosaurus''. Originally classified in the Helopodinae, it has been assigned to many groups, among them the Astrodontidae,

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 ...

Brachiosauridae The Brachiosauridae ("arm lizards", from Greek ''brachion'' (βραχίων) = "arm" and ''sauros'' = "lizard") are a family or clade of herbivorous, quadrupedal sauropod dinosaurs. Brachiosaurids had long necks that enabled them to access the le ...

, and

Camarasauridae Camarasauridae is a family of sauropod dinosaurs. Among sauropods, camarasaurids are small to medium-sized, with relatively short necks. They are visually identifiable by a short skull with large nares, and broad, spatulate teeth filling a thick ...

, but recent consensus (2011) has been to assign ''Tienshanosaurus'' to

Mamenchisauridae 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 ...

.T. Sekiya. 2011. Re-examination of Chuanjiesaurus anaensis (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the Middle Jurassic Chuanjie Formation, Lufeng County, Yunnan Province, southwest China. Memoir of the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum 10:1-54.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q135792 Mamenchisauridae Dinosaur genera Late Jurassic dinosaurs Shaximiao Formation Taxa named by Yang Zhongjian Fossil taxa described in 1937 Dinosaurs of China