YONGJINGLONG

Found beside the G75 Highway, less than a kilometre from the quarries of Daxiatitan and Huanghetitan in China's Lanzhou-Minhe Basin, Yongjinglong is based on a juvenile specimen. But its tooth crowns are among the tallest of all sauropods reported thus far. In contrast, its vertebrae are very short, at least compared to the Asian hyper-necked sauropods like Mamenchisaurus, but neither of those things is its weirdest feature.

The shoulder blade of Yongjinglong is one of the longest among sauropods despite its overall modest size, even eclipsing those belonging to much larger individuals of Supersaurus and Apatosaurus. It's so long, in fact, that when placed in the generally accepted sub-horizontal position, it extends more than halfway along its back, presuming, of course, that it had the same number of vertebrae as most other sauropods, and those that are missing from the type specimen are of similar length to the ones that are known.

To "fit" with a somewhat stumpy body, perhaps its shoulder blade was oriented more vertically, but that would make it unfeasibly high at the shoulder and deep in the chest, and restrict forelimb movement, rendering the simple act of walking somewhat problematic. So perhaps Yongjinglong was also, well, justlong, and more and/or longer back vertebrae than is typical of your average sauropod, gave its trunk the proportions of a Dachshund. Either way, it was an unusual shape.

Yongjinglong is a somphospondyl titanosauriform, but beyond that, its position is unclear. By separate authors at different times, it has been recovered as a member of Titanosauria and Euhelopodidae, which are the two families within Somphospondyli.