Pronunciation: chee-jee-yahn-long
Meaning: Qijiang dragon
Author/s: Xu et al. (2015)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Chongqing, China
Discovery Chart Position: #891
Qijianglong guokr
Once upon a long ago, palaeontologists began attaching "long" (dragon) to Asian dinosaurs in much the same way as they attach "saurus" (lizard) to those from everywhere else. Size, shape, and dietary preference have no bearing on whether your dinosaur can be classed as a dragon, and this very point was proven in 2015 by Qijianglong guokr: a rotund, herbivorous "dragon from Qijiang", which became the first official dinosaur of the year on January 26th.
Its head, or at least part of it, is still attached to its neck which is incredibly unusual for a sauropod, and although far from complete, its skull roof and braincase were well-preserved which afforded a rare glimpse into the neurocranial anatomy of its kind. The neck itself is 17 vertebrae long and accounted for roughly 50% of its body length, and each vertebra is unique in being both lightweight due to a series of hollows and in sporting a finger-like projection that formed an interlocking joint with a corresponding groove on the next. Otherwise, Qijianglong was pretty much your bread and butter mamenchisaurid: the long-necked Asian sauropods that never left Asia and are truly ancient, but only since the Sichuan Basin's Seven Formations were redated, which pushed the earliest ones back into the Mid-Jurassic.
Announced as the only confirmed Late Jurassic mamenchisaurid that definitely isn't Mamenchisaurus, Qijianglong was primed to expand the diversity of Mamenchisauridae which it currently has, but with the best will in the world this may not be the case in the long run. During the course of their research, the author's of Qijianglong realized that Mamenchisauridae is in a terrible state. Some members may be synonymous with others while others seem just plain dubious, with either scenario resulting in a cull of its members. On the other hand, perhaps Mamenchisaurus has been used as a waste basket where Asian sauropod remains were dumped willy-nilly by paleontologists who underestimated their significance, and these may be standalone critters in their own right and expand the family diversity too.
Regardless, all mamenchisaurids were pushing up daisies by the end Jurassic, as titanosauriformes marched into the Cretaceous as the dominant herbivores of Asia.
Its head, or at least part of it, is still attached to its neck which is incredibly unusual for a sauropod, and although far from complete, its skull roof and braincase were well-preserved which afforded a rare glimpse into the neurocranial anatomy of its kind. The neck itself is 17 vertebrae long and accounted for roughly 50% of its body length, and each vertebra is unique in being both lightweight due to a series of hollows and in sporting a finger-like projection that formed an interlocking joint with a corresponding groove on the next. Otherwise, Qijianglong was pretty much your bread and butter mamenchisaurid: the long-necked Asian sauropods that never left Asia and are truly ancient, but only since the Sichuan Basin's Seven Formations were redated, which pushed the earliest ones back into the Mid-Jurassic.
Announced as the only confirmed Late Jurassic mamenchisaurid that definitely isn't Mamenchisaurus, Qijianglong was primed to expand the diversity of Mamenchisauridae which it currently has, but with the best will in the world this may not be the case in the long run. During the course of their research, the author's of Qijianglong realized that Mamenchisauridae is in a terrible state. Some members may be synonymous with others while others seem just plain dubious, with either scenario resulting in a cull of its members. On the other hand, perhaps Mamenchisaurus has been used as a waste basket where Asian sauropod remains were dumped willy-nilly by paleontologists who underestimated their significance, and these may be standalone critters in their own right and expand the family diversity too.
Regardless, all mamenchisaurids were pushing up daisies by the end Jurassic, as titanosauriformes marched into the Cretaceous as the dominant herbivores of Asia.
(Guokr's Qijiang Dragon)Etymology
Qijianglong is derived from "Qijiang" (for Qijiang District where the type
specimen was collected and is accessioned) and the Chinese "long" (dragon).
The species epithet, guokr (gu-OH-ke-r), honors the Chinese science social network of the same name (Guokr—meaning "nutshell" in Chinese) for their support of paleontology in Qijiang.
ZooBank registry: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:9D8A395F-8346-4E6E-AB5B-F869E345B0E5.
Discovery
The remains of Qijianglong were discovered at the Beidu site in the Suining Formation (the sixth youngest of the seven Jurassic Formations of the Sichuan Basin), Qijiang Petrified Wood and Dinosaur Footprint National Geological Park, Qijiang District, Chongqing Municipality, China, by construction workers in 2006.
The holotype (QJGPM 1001) is a partial skull and skeleton, including a skull roof, braincase and jaw fragments, a complete series of neck vertebrae; back vertebrae, rib fragments, tail vertebrae, chevrons, a left pubis (hip bone), and a single toe bone.
