Open Paleo

Jiangxititan

Mo et al., 2023 jee-AHNG-shee-TIE-tuhn

Named for Jiangxi Province, China, where the fossils were found, combined with Greek 'titan' meaning 'giant'.

72.2–66.0 million years ago Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Jiangxititan is an extinct genus of somphospondylan titanosauriform dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Nanxiong Formation of China. The genus contains a single species, J. ganzhouensis, known from several articulated vertebrae with ribs. Originally described as a titanosaur, Jiangxititan was later suggested to be a non-titanosaurian somphospondylan.

Under dispute

Jiangxititan was described as a derived titanosaur within Lognkosauria (Mo and colleagues, 2023), but a reanalysis recovered it as a non-titanosaurian somphospondylan, albeit as an unstable taxon (Han and colleagues, 2024).

Diagnosis

  1. Posterior cervical and anterior dorsal centra strongly compressed dorsoventrally
  2. Accessory horizontal laminae within anterior dorsal pleurocoels
  3. Posterior cervical and anterior dorsal neural arches low
  4. Posterior cervical and anterior dorsal neural spines deeply bifurcated and widely separated
  5. Inverted 'V' lamina present at anterior margin of bifid point in posteriormost cervical and anteriormost dorsal neural spines
  6. Postzygapophyses in posterior cervical vertebrae fan-shaped
  7. Medial and lateral spinopostzygapophyseal laminae in anterior dorsal vertebrae
  8. Anterior dorsal rib short and gracile

Species

Jiangxititan ganzhouensis Mo et al., 2023

Type species

Named for Ganzhou City in Jiangxi Province, southern China, where the holotype was discovered.

Holotype
NHMG 034062 , Natural History Museum of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
Material
Seven articulated posterior cervical and anterior dorsal vertebrae (CeA, CeP, CeU, D1-D4), two cervical ribs, three dorsal ribs
Horizon
Nanxiong Formation, Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 72.2–66.0 million years ago
Locality
Tankou Town, Nankang, Jiangxi, China

References

  1. Mo, J. Y.; Fu, Q. Y.; Yu, Y. L.; Xu, X. (2023). A New Titanosaurian Sauropod from the Upper Cretaceous of Jiangxi Province, Southern China. Historical Biology 36(11): 2443-2457. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/08912963.2023.2259413 mo2023a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the body length, mass, and hip height estimates.

    jones2026b
  3. Han, F.; Yang, L.; Lou, F.; Sullivan, C.; Xu, X.; Qiu, W.; Liu, H.; Yu, J.; Wu, R.; Ke, Y.; Xu, M.; Hu, J.; Lu, P. (2024). A new titanosaurian sauropod, Gandititan cavocaudatus gen. et sp. nov., from the Late Cretaceous of southern China. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 22(1): 2293038. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/14772019.2023.2293038

    New titanosaur description reanalysis recovered Jiangxititan as a non-titanosaurian somphospondylan.

    han2024a