Gannansaurus
"Gannan lizard"
Type species Gannansaurus sinensis
- Lived
- 72 to 66 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Sauropods
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Lü et al. 2013
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
70 million years ago
Habitat
It lived in southern China near the end of the Cretaceous. The regional dinosaur fauna included Jiangxititan, Qianzhousaurus and Banji.
Field notes
About Gannansaurus
What it was like
Gannansaurus was a long-necked, four-legged plant eater known from only two backbones. It was a relative of the titanosaurs.
Its world
It lived about 72 to 66 million years ago, at the end of the Late Cretaceous, in what is now southern China.
How it was found
Lü and colleagues named Gannansaurus in 2013, from a single find.
Field gallery
More views of Gannansaurus
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
1 of 2
The evidence
The science behind Gannansaurus
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- One nearly complete trunk vertebra and a vertebra from the middle of the tail.
- The trunk vertebra has deep hollows and crossing ridges like those in Euhelopus.
Borrowed from relatives
- Most of the body is restored from better-known titanosauriforms such as Euhelopus, including the long neck, small head and weight-bearing legs.
Still unknown
- Its body size and the proportions of its neck and limbs.
- Its skin texture and color.
- Its exact place among the titanosauriforms.
Discovery timeline
- 2009Close relativeWilson & Upchurch
- 2013Named itLü et al.
- 2023Family treeMo et al.
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Gannansaurus
Close relative
Restudied the skull and skeleton of Euhelopus, the sauropod used for key comparisons when Gannansaurus was named.
Redescription and reassessment of the phylogenetic affinities of euhelopus zdanskyi (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the early cretaceous of China. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 7: 199-239
Read the paper : Redescription and reassessment of the phylogenetic affinities of euhelopus zdanskyi (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the early cretaceous of China (opens in a new tab)Named it
Named Gannansaurus from trunk and tail vertebrae and compared its backbone with Euhelopus.
A new somphospondylan sauropod (Dinosauria, Titanosauriformes) from the Late Cretaceous of Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province of southern China. Acta Geologica Sinica (English Edition) 87: 678-685
No link available
Family tree
Named Jiangxititan from the same regional rocks and placed Gannansaurus on an earlier branch of the titanosauriform family tree.
A New Titanosaurian Sauropod from the Upper Cretaceous of Jiangxi Province, Southern China. Historical Biology 36: 2443-2457
Read the paper : A New Titanosaurian Sauropod from the Upper Cretaceous of Jiangxi Province, Southern China (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Somphospondyli
Sources: Wikidata