Pronunciation: jang-SHAHN-o-SOR-us
Meaning: Jiangshan lizard
Author/s: Tang et al. (2001)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Zhejiang, China
Discovery Chart Position: #498
Jiangshanosaurus lixianensis
For decades, fossil evidence supported the view that titanosaurs—the long-necked, wide-load, herbivorous sauropods—originated in Gondwana, the ancient southern supercontinent that included present-day South America, Africa, India, Antarctica and most other countries below the equator. This region yielded the richest diversity of titanosaurs, from the colossal Argentinosaurus to the squat, armoured Saltasaurus. However, an increasing number of discoveries in Laurasia—the northern supercontinent comprising modern-day Asia, Europe, and North America—are complicating that narrative. Some of these northern finds rival or even predate their Gondwanan counterparts, thus challenging the theory of a strictly southern cradle of origin from which titanosaurs dispersed globally.
One notable example, sometimes, is Jiangshanosaurus lixianensis, a titanosaur most days, but not beyond a jaunt into Titanosauriformes—the group that includes Titanosauria and their closest non-titanosaur relatives—with whichever palaeontologist is pushing the pen at any given time. Excavated between 1977 and 1978 from the Jinhua Formation of Zhejiang Province, China, the specimen was initially thought to be Albian (late Early Cretaceous) in age. However, it was redated to the Turonian (early Late Cretaceous) some four-and-a-bit decades later. But even so, it remains among the dozen-or-so oldest named titanosaurs—if it is, in fact, a titanosaur today.
Its remains are fragmentary—consisting of vertebrae, pelvic bones, and limb elements—and have gradually been stripped of their hallmark titanosaurian traits as time has passed. Gone are the procoelous—hollowed at the front—tail vertebrae, reinterpreted as amphicoelous—hollowed at both ends, and the pelvic girdle, once noted to resemble that of the North American titanosaur Alamosaurus sanjuanensis—whose holotype, ironically, lacks a pelvis altogether. Yet Jiangshanosaurus clings limpet-like to one bona fide titanosaurian feature: the top edge of two shoulder bones (the scapula and coracoid) are approximately level with one another.
One notable example, sometimes, is Jiangshanosaurus lixianensis, a titanosaur most days, but not beyond a jaunt into Titanosauriformes—the group that includes Titanosauria and their closest non-titanosaur relatives—with whichever palaeontologist is pushing the pen at any given time. Excavated between 1977 and 1978 from the Jinhua Formation of Zhejiang Province, China, the specimen was initially thought to be Albian (late Early Cretaceous) in age. However, it was redated to the Turonian (early Late Cretaceous) some four-and-a-bit decades later. But even so, it remains among the dozen-or-so oldest named titanosaurs—if it is, in fact, a titanosaur today.
Its remains are fragmentary—consisting of vertebrae, pelvic bones, and limb elements—and have gradually been stripped of their hallmark titanosaurian traits as time has passed. Gone are the procoelous—hollowed at the front—tail vertebrae, reinterpreted as amphicoelous—hollowed at both ends, and the pelvic girdle, once noted to resemble that of the North American titanosaur Alamosaurus sanjuanensis—whose holotype, ironically, lacks a pelvis altogether. Yet Jiangshanosaurus clings limpet-like to one bona fide titanosaurian feature: the top edge of two shoulder bones (the scapula and coracoid) are approximately level with one another.
(Jiangshan Lizard from Lixian)Etymology
Jiangshanosaurus is derived from "Jiangshan" (the county in which its fossil site is located) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard).The species epithet, lixianensis, is derived from "Lixian" (the village where it was found) and the Latin "ensis" (from).
Discovery
The remains of Jiangshanosaurus were recovered from the lower part of the Jinhua Formation at Lixian Village, Jiangshan County, Zhejiang Province, China, by Wei Feng, Wu Wei Tang and Kang Xi Min in 1977 and 1978.The holotype (ZNM M1322) includes elements of the left shoulder, five back vertebrae, three tail vertebrae, a partial pelvic girdle and a left thigh.
