HUANGHETITAN
a somphospondyl sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Gansu, China.
Pronunciation: HWANG-he-TIE-tuhn
Meaning: Yellow River Giant
Author/s: You
et al. (
2006)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Gansu Province, China
Acta Ordinal: #590
Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis
(Yellow River Titan from Liujiaxia)Etymology
Huanghetitan is derived from the Chinese "Huanghe" (Yellow River—which flows along the Lanzhou Basin where the fossils were discovered) and the Greek "titan" (giant).
The
species epithet,
liujiaxiaensis,
is derived from the Chinese "Liujiaxia" (Liujia Gorge—which is part of the Yellow River in Lanzhou Basin, close to the Liujiaxia National Dinosaur Geopark) and the Latin "ensis" (from).
Discovery
The remains of
Huanghetitan were discovered at "Quarry 2" in the Hekou Group, Liujiaxia, in the eastern part of Lanzhou Basin, Gansu Province, China, by a field crew from the Fossil Research and Development Center of the Third Geology and Mineral Resources Exploration Academy of Gansu Province, in 2004.
The
holotype (GSLTZP02-001) consists of two tail vertebrae, an almost complete sacrum, rib fragments, and the left shoulder girdle.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Early Cretaceous
Stage: Aptian–Albian
Age range: 115-105 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: ?
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: ?
Diet: Herbivore
Huanghetitan
liujiaxiaensis
Huanghetitan liujiaxiaensis
Huanghetitan ruyangensis (from Ruyang County) was coined for remains from the Haoling Formation at Liufugou Village, Henan, by Lü Junchang and colleagues in 2007, and in doing so they had enough members to raise a new family—Huanghetitanidae. According to Mannion
et al 2013, this second species of
Huanghetitan doesn't actually belong to
Huanghetitan, nor to the same county's
Yunmenglong ruyangensis or
Ruyangosaurus giganteus either. So its remains, with some ribs almost 3m long resulting in the deepest body cavity of any known sauropod from Asia and perhaps anywhere, patiently await a new name.
References
• You H, Li D, Zhou L and 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.
• Lü J, Xu L, Zhang X, Hu W, Wu Y, Jia S, Ji Q (2007) "A New Gigantic Sauropod Dinosaur with the Deepest Known Body Cavity from the Cretaceous of Asia".
Acta Geologica Sinica (English Edition), 81(2): 167-176. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1755-6724.2007.tb00941.x.
• Mannion PD, Upchurch P, Barnes RN and Mateus O (2013) "Osteology of the Late Jurassic Portuguese sauropod dinosaur
Lusotitan atalaiensis (Macronaria) and the evolutionary history of basal titanosauriforms".
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 168: 98-206.
• Paul GS (2016) "
The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs: Second Edition".
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
HUANGHETITAN :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/HUANGHETITAN›. Web access: 26th Apr 2026.
