Yongjinglong
From Yongjing County, Gansu Province, China (near where the holotype was found) and Chinese long ('dragon'), meaning 'Yongjing dragon'
Yongjinglong is an extinct genus of titanosauriform sauropod dinosaur known from the Early Cretaceous of Lanzhou-Minhe Basin of Gansu Province, China. It contains a single species, Yongjinglong datangi.
Under dispute
Yongjinglong was originally described as a derived titanosaur, recovered close to Opisthocoelicaudia in most of its describers' analyses (Li and colleagues, 2014), but most recent analyses instead recover it within Euhelopodidae (Mannion and colleagues, 2019; Poropat and colleagues, 2023; Han and colleagues, 2024; Shan and colleagues, 2025).
Diagnosis
- Long-crowned, spoon-shaped premaxillary tooth
- Axially elongate parapophyses on cervical vertebrae
- Very deep lateral pneumatic foramina spanning cervical and cervicodorsal vertebral centra
- Low unbifurcated neural spine forming cranially-pointing triangular plate in middle dorsal vertebra
- XI-shaped configuration of laminae on middle dorsal vertebral arches
- Very long scapular blade with exceptionally straight cranial and caudal edges
- Tall deep groove on lateral surface of distal radius shaft
Species
Yongjinglong datangi Li et al., 2014
Type species
Named both for the Tang dynasty of China and for Zhi-Lu Tang of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), in recognition of contributions to the study of dinosaurs.
- Holotype
- GSGM ZH(08)-04 , Gansu Geological Museum
- Material
- Three teeth, eight presacral vertebrae (one caudal cervical, four cranial dorsal, three articulated middle dorsal), one fragmentary dorsal rib, left scapulocoracoid, right ulna and radius.
- Horizon
- upper Hekou Group, Barremian–Aptian, Early Cretaceous , 125.8–113.2 million years ago
- Locality
- beside the G75 Highway, near the town of Zhongpu, less than a kilometer from the quarries that produced Daxiatitan and Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis, Gansu, China
References
-
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
Named Yongjinglong and recovered it within Titanosauria, close to Opisthocoelicaudia in two of its three matrices.
li2014a -
Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.
Source of the body length, mass, and hip height estimates.
jones2026b -
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
Newly scored Yongjinglong and recovered it within Euhelopodidae in all analyses, inverting its original titanosaur placement.
mannion2019b -
Shan, B. (2025). The re-description of Liaoningotitan sinensis Zhou et al., 2018. PeerJ 13: e19154. PeerJ. doi:10.7717/peerj.19154
Assessed the phylogenetic position of Yongjinglong.
shan2025a -
Poropat, S. F.; Mannion, P. D.; Rigby, S. L.; Duncan, R. J.; Pentland, A. H.; Bevitt, J. J.; Sloan, T.; Elliott, D. A. (2023). A nearly complete skull of the sauropod dinosaur Diamantinasaurus matildae from the Upper Cretaceous Winton Formation of Australia and implications for the early evolution of titanosaurs. Royal Society Open Science 10(4): 221618. doi:10.1098/rsos.221618
Recovered Yongjinglong within Euhelopodidae.
poropat2023a -
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
Recovered Yongjinglong within Euhelopodidae.
han2024a