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Qaikshaheen, Late CretaceousVitakri Formation, Pakistan · named 2023
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Qaikshaheen

Type species Qaikshaheen masoomniazi

Lived
72 to 66 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
Diet
Herbivore
Group
Sauropods, Balochisauridae
Found in
Pakistan and India
Named by
Malkani 2023

Where its fossils were found

The evidence

Today

3 finds

70 million years ago

Map: C. R. Scotese, PALEOMAP

Habitat

The Vitakri Formation records a landscape crossed by rivers in what is now Pakistan. Other titanosaurs reported from these rocks include Pakisaurus and Balochisaurus.

Field notes

About Qaikshaheen

What it was like

Qaikshaheen was described as a titanosaur, a long-necked plant eater. It is known from scattered bones.

Its world

It lived about 72 to 66 million years ago, near the end of the Cretaceous, in what is now Pakistan. It comes from the Vitakri Formation.

How it was found

Malkani named Qaikshaheen in 2023. The type species is Qaikshaheen masoomniazi. Many other paleontologists think the bones are too scrappy to define a genus, so the name is often treated as doubtful.

Field gallery

More views of Qaikshaheen

Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.

Qaikshaheen in its habitat, photo 1

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 Qaikshaheen.

The evidence

The science behind Qaikshaheen

Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.

From its own fossils

  • The type bones include parts of neck, back and tail vertebrae, pieces of a shoulder blade, a coracoid, pieces from both ends of the upper arm bone, a hip bone, thigh bone pieces, the upper end of the shin bone and the calf bone. Rib pieces come from the same site.
  • The shoulder blade is nearly straight near the joint, the shoulder socket on the coracoid has no raised lip, and the upper arm bone carries a strong, wavy muscle crest set toward the outside.
  • The shin bone has a broad, stout upper end and a thick rear portion, and a back vertebra from the type site has bony ridges surrounding hollows.

Borrowed from relatives

  • The missing head is restored by comparison with Tapuiasaurus, and the rest of the neck and body with Mnyamawamtuka, both titanosaurs.

Still unknown

  • Whether all the bones assigned to Qaikshaheen come from one kind of dinosaur. Even the type bones were grouped by where they lay and their size, and slender forearm bones, sturdy hand bones and other finds from other sites were referred to it by shape alone.
  • Whether its features distinguish it from other named titanosaurs.
  • Its body proportions and skin covering. Its thigh bone was described as stout when it was named and as slender in a later account.

Discovery timeline

  1. 2023Named itMalkani
  2. 2023Its worldMalkani
  3. 2024RedescriptionMalkani
  4. 2025New findMalkani

Key papers

The research behind what we know of Qaikshaheen

Close relatives

Other members of Balochisauridae