Huanghetitan

You et al., 2006 HWANG-he-TIE-tuhn

Named for the Yellow River (Huanghe in Chinese) combined with 'titan' (giant), hence 'Yellow River titan'.

125.8–113.2 million years ago Barremian–Aptian, Early Cretaceous

Early Cretaceous stages

Huanghetitan is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the early Cretaceous Period. It was a basal titanosauriform which lived in what is now Gansu, China.

Under dispute

The type species Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis is regarded as a non-titanosaurian somphospondylan, referred there by D'Emic (2012) on a single character, recovered as a 'basal' somphospondylan by Mannion and colleagues (2019), and recovered as the earliest-branching somphospondyl by Mayer and colleagues (2026); the Princeton Encyclopedia (Jones, 2026) concurs. The referred species "H." ruyangensis is widely regarded as generically distinct.

Diagnosis

Dorsal vertebrae neural spines extremely low (lower than centrum height) with transversely expanded apices (wider than neural spine height)
Sacral neural spine length less than corresponding centrum length
Four fused neural spines totaling ~60 cm with uniform heights (~8 cm) but progressively narrowing expanded apices (20 cm to 8 cm)
Scapular acromion extremely expanded dorsoventrally (83 cm tall), exceeding scapular blade length (70 cm)
Longitudinal groove on ventral surface of anterior and middle caudal vertebrae

Species

Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis You et al., 2006

Type species

Named for the Liujiaxia area of the Lanzhou Basin in Gansu Province, China, where the holotype was discovered.

Holotype: GSLTZP02-001 , The Fossil Research and Development Center of the Third Geology and Mineral Resources Exploration Academy of Gansu Provincial Bureau of Geo-exploration and Mineral Development
Material: Nearly complete dorsal vertebrae (five fused), one anterior caudal, one mid caudal, cervical ribs, one chevron, left ilium, pubis, ischium.
Horizon: upper Hekou Group, Barremian–Aptian, Early Cretaceous , 125.8–113.2 million years ago
Locality: Quarry 2, Gansu, China

References

You, H.; Li, D.; Zhou, L.; Ji, Q. (2006). Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis, a new sauropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Hekou Group of Lanzhou Basin, Gansu Province, China. Geological Review 52(5): 668-674. you2006a
Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.
Source of the hip height estimate.
jones2026b
Mayer, E. L.; Silva Junior, J. C. G.; Kerber, L.; Navarro, B. A.; Bandeira, K. L. N.; Cisneros, J. C.; Sousa, E. P.; Pereira, A. A.; Medeiros, M. A.; Lindoso, R. M.; Cavalcanti Neto, F. P.; Ghilardi, A. M.; Aureliano, T.; Godoy, P. L.; Ferreira, G. S.; Langer, M. C. (2026). A new titanosauriform with European affinities in the Early Cretaceous of Brazil: insights on Somphospondyli phylogeny, histology and biogeography. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 24: 2601579. Taylor & Francis. doi:10.1080/14772019.2025.2601579
Recovered Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis as the earliest-branching non-titanosaurian somphospondylan.
mayer2026a
Mannion, P. D.; Upchurch, P.; Jin, X.; Zheng, W. (2019). New information on the Cretaceous sauropod dinosaurs of Zhejiang Province, China: impact on Laurasian titanosauriform phylogeny and biogeography. Royal Society Open Science 6(8): 191057. doi:10.1098/rsos.191057
Recovered Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis as a 'basal' (non-titanosaurian) somphospondylan.
mannion2019b
D'Emic, M. D. (2012). The early evolution of titanosauriform sauropod dinosaurs. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 166: 624-671. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2012.00853.x
Referred Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis to Somphospondyli on the basis of a single character.
d'emic2012b
Li, L. G.; Li, D. Q.; You, H. L.; Dodson, P. (2014). A New Titanosaurian Sauropod from the Hekou Group (Lower Cretaceous) of the Lanzhou-Minhe Basin, Gansu Province, China. PLoS ONE 9(1): e85979. Public Library of Science (PLoS). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0085979
Places this quarry's sauropod cluster in the upper Hekou Group.
li2014a