| Huanghetitan | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Reconstructed skeleton ofHuanghetitan liujiaxiaensis | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Clade: | †Macronaria |
| Clade: | †Titanosauriformes |
| Clade: | †Somphospondyli |
| Genus: | †Huanghetitan Youet al., 2006 |
| Type species | |
| †Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis Youet al., 2006 | |
| Otherspecies | |
Huanghetitan (meaning "Yellow River titan"), is agenus ofsauropoddinosaur from the earlyCretaceous Period. It was a basaltitanosauriform which lived in what is nowGansu,China.
Thetype species,Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis, was described by Youet al. in 2006. It is known from fragmentary materials including two caudal vertebrae, an almost completesacrum, rib fragments, and the left shoulder girdle, and was discovered in the eastern part of theLanzhou Basin (Hekou Group) in the Gansu Province in 2004.[1]
A second species,H. ruyangensis, was described in 2007 from the Aptian-AlbianHaoling Formation ofRuyang County, China (Henan Province). A recent cladistic analysis has found that this species is unlikely to be closely related toH. liujiaxiaensis and requires a new genus name.[2]
H. liujiaxiaensis is a relatively small sauropod, measuring 12 metres (39 ft) long and weighing 3 metric tons (3.3 short tons).[3]H. ruyangensis is known from a partial vertebral column and several ribs, the size of which (the largest approaches 3 metres (9.8 ft) in length) indicates it had among the deepest body cavities of any known dinosaur.[4] This second species, along with its local relativesDaxiatitan andRuyangosaurus, is one of the biggest dinosaurs ever found in Asia, and possibly one of the largest in the world.[5] In 2019,Gregory S. Paul suggested that the dorsal rib ofH. ruyangensis is about the same length as the titanosaurPatagotitan, and its sacrum may be similar in length, possibly suggesting a similar mass range of 45–55 metric tons (50–61 short tons).[6]
In 2007,Lü Junchanget al. created a newfamily forHuanghetitan, the Huangetitanidae, but this family found to bepolyphyletic by Mannionet al.[4][2]
The following is a cladogram from Averianovet al., 2017,[7] based on the work of Mannionet al., showingHuanghetitan as a paraphyletic genus with "H."ruyangensis being closer to Titanosauria:
| Somphospondyli |
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