Tongnanlong
"Tongnan dragon"
Type species Tongnanlong zhimingi
- Lived
- 162 to 143 million years ago, Late Jurassic
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Sauropods, Mamenchisauridae
- Found in
- China
- Named by
- Wei et al. 2025
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
150 million years ago
Habitat
The Suining Formation records shallow lakes and lakeshores in a relatively dry climate. Mamenchisaurus, Qijianglong and Yangchuanosaurus lived in the same region.
Field notes
About Tongnanlong
What it was like
Tongnanlong was a mamenchisaurid, a long-necked plant eater from the family of Mamenchisaurus, whose members had some of the longest necks of any animal.
Its world
It lived in the Late Jurassic in what is now China. Its bones come from the Suining Formation. The predator Yangchuanosaurus and the long-necked Qijianglong lived in the same region.
How it was found
Wei and colleagues named it in 2025 from one find. The type species is Tongnanlong zhimingi.
Field gallery
More views of Tongnanlong
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 Tongnanlong.
The evidence
The science behind Tongnanlong
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- An associated partial skeleton includes back and tail bones, a shoulder girdle, lower leg bones and parts of the feet.
- The back bones have a distinctive combination of ridges and hollows.
- The preserved foot claws are flattened from side to side, curved and fairly blunt at their tips.
Borrowed from relatives
- The long neck and overall body shape are restored by comparison with Mamenchisaurus.
- Euhelopus provides a broader sauropod comparison for the missing head.
- Sauropods such as Brachiosaurus and Apatosaurus provide models for its missing front feet.
Still unknown
- The exact length and shape of its neck.
- The shape of its skull and the arrangement of its fingers and toes.
- Its color and skin texture.
Discovery timeline
- 2003PostureBonnan
- 2013SkullPoropat & Kear
- 2025Named itWei et al.
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Tongnanlong
Posture
Explained how sauropod hand bones formed compact supports for walking, providing a model for missing front feet.
The evolution of manus shape in sauropod dinosaurs: implications for functional morphology, forelimb orientation, and phylogeny. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 23: 595-613
Read the paper : The evolution of manus shape in sauropod dinosaurs: implications for functional morphology, forelimb orientation, and phylogeny (opens in a new tab)Skull
Described and reconstructed the skull of Euhelopus, a broader sauropod comparison for the missing head of Tongnanlong.
Photographic Atlas and Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of the Holotype Skull of Euhelopus zdanskyi with Description of Additional Cranial Elements. PLoS ONE 8: e79932
Read the paper : Photographic Atlas and Three-Dimensional Reconstruction of the Holotype Skull of Euhelopus zdanskyi with Description of Additional Cranial Elements (opens in a new tab)Named it
Named Tongnanlong from a partial skeleton and placed it closer to Mamenchisaurus than to Omeisaurus.
A new mamenchisaurid from the Upper Jurassic Suining Formation of the Sichuan Basin in China and its implication on sauropod gigantism. Scientific Reports 15
Read the paper : A new mamenchisaurid from the Upper Jurassic Suining Formation of the Sichuan Basin in China and its implication on sauropod gigantism (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Mamenchisauridae
Sources: Wikidata