Hamititan
"Hami titan"
Type species Hamititan xinjiangensis
- Lived
- 137 to 133 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Sauropods
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Wang et al. 2021
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
135 million years ago
Habitat
Lakes in China left the sandstone that held its bones. Silutitan and Xiyunykus also lived in this landscape, alongside pterosaurs.
Field notes
About Hamititan
What it was like
Hamititan was a titanosaur, a long-necked plant eater. It is known from tail bones.
Its world
It lived in the Early Cretaceous, in what is now China. It comes from the Shengjinkou Formation, where it shared the land with the sauropod Silutitan and the alvarezsaur Xiyunykus. The same rocks hold many pterosaur bones and eggs.
How it was found
Wang and colleagues named Hamititan in 2021. The type species is Hamititan xinjiangensis.
Field gallery
More views of Hamititan
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
A rock formation can hold fossils laid down millions of years apart, so not every animal here met Hamititan.
The evidence
The science behind Hamititan
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- A connected series of tail vertebrae preserves parts of the bones that hung beneath the tail.
- The tail joints have a hollow front and a rounded rear, a common titanosaur feature.
Borrowed from relatives
- The missing head, neck, body and limbs are general titanosaur guesses.
Still unknown
- Its skull shape, neck length, body and limbs.
- Its skin covering and color, and its closest relatives among sauropods.
- Experts disagree about whether its tail bones distinguish a separate genus; one later study considered them probably not diagnostic at genus level.
Discovery timeline
- 2014Same rocksWang et al.
- 2017Its worldWang et al.
- 2021Named itWang et al.
- 2026Family treeMannion & Carvalho
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Hamititan
Same rocks
Named a pterosaur from many skeletons and eggs in the fossil beds that later yielded Hamititan.
Sexually Dimorphic Tridimensionally Preserved Pterosaurs and Their Eggs from China. Current Biology 24: 1323-1330
Read the paper : Sexually Dimorphic Tridimensionally Preserved Pterosaurs and Their Eggs from China (opens in a new tab)Its world
Described pterosaur embryos and eggs, revealing how a flying neighbor of Hamititan developed before hatching.
Egg accumulation with 3D embryos provides insight into the life history of a pterosaur. Science 358: 1197-1201
Read the paper : Egg accumulation with 3D embryos provides insight into the life history of a pterosaur (opens in a new tab)Named it
Named Hamititan from tail bones and identified it as a titanosaur.
The first dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous Hami Pterosaur Fauna, China. Scientific Reports 11
Read the paper : The first dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous Hami Pterosaur Fauna, China (opens in a new tab)Family tree
One study considered Hamititan's type probably not diagnostic at genus level and found different family-tree positions under different weightings.
Re-evaluation of the Early Cretaceous titanosauriform sauropod dinosaur Triunfosaurus leonardii from the Triunfo Basin, Brazil: implications for the initial radiations of Somphospondyli and Titanosauria. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 207
Read the paper : Re-evaluation of the Early Cretaceous titanosauriform sauropod dinosaur Triunfosaurus leonardii from the Triunfo Basin, Brazil: implications for the initial radiations of Somphospondyli and Titanosauria (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Titanosauria
Sources: Wikidata