| Mongolosaurus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Drawing of a tooth fromM. haplodon | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Clade: | †Macronaria |
| Clade: | †Somphospondyli |
| Genus: | †Mongolosaurus Gilmore, 1933 |
| Type species | |
| †Mongolosaurus haplodon Gilmore, 1933 | |
Mongolosaurus is agenus oftitanosauriformsauropoddinosaur which lived during the EarlyCretaceous ofChina.[1]
In 1928 a team from theAmerican Museum of Natural History, headed byRoy Chapman Andrews, atOn Gong Gol nearHukongwulong inInner Mongolia, inQuarry 714 discovered a sauropodtooth. In 1933Charles W. Gilmore, based on this fossil, named and described thetype speciesMongolosaurus haplodon. The generic name refers toMongolia. Thespecific name is derived from Greekhaploos, "single", andodon, "tooth".[1]
Theholotype,AMNH 6710, was found in the Early Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian)On Gong Formation. It consists of teeth, a basioccipital from the back of the skull and parts of the first threecervical vertebrae.
Mongolosaurus was previously assigned toDiplodocidae,Titanosauridae andEuhelopodidae, though recent studies find it to be either a basal titanosaur or a non-titanosaurian somphospondylan.[2][3]
In their 2023 description of the titanosaurJiangxititan. Moet al. analyzed the phylogenetic relationships ofMongolosaurus. They recoveredMongolosaurus as a derived member of the titanosaurian cladeLognkosauria, as thesister taxon toJiangxititan. The results of theirphylogenetic analyses are shown in the cladogram below:[4]
