A Titanosaurian Sauropod Dinosaur with Opisthocoelous Caudal Vertebrae from the Early Late Cretaceous of Liaoning Province, China

2004/08/01 by YOU Hailu, Qiang Ji, Matthew C. Lamanna +2 · 5 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology #Ichthyology and Marine Biology #Evolution and Paleontology Studies

paper · doi:10.1111/j.1755-6724.2004.tb00212.x

openalex publication_date 2004/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21

Abstract

Abstract We describe a new titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur, Borealosaurus wimani gen. et sp. nov., based on a distinctive mid‐distal caudal vertebra from the early Late Cretaceous Sunjiawan Formation exposed in the Shuangmiao village of Beipiao in Liaoning, China. We provisionally refer an isolated tooth crown, a middle caudal vertebra, and a right humerus from the same locality and horizon to this taxon. Borealosaurus is distinguished from other sauropods in its possession of opisthocoelous mid‐distal caudal vertebrae. The occurrence of opisthocoelous caudals in Borealosaurus and the Mongolian sauropod Opisthocoelicaudia raises the possibility that these taxa pertain to an as‐yet unrecognized titanosaurian subclade endemic to the Cretaceous Asia.

Cited by

• A New Species of the Ankylosaurid Dinosaur Crichtonsaurus (Ankylosauridae: Ankylosauria) from the Cretaceous of Liaoning Province, China
• An unusual new sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia
• Redescription and reassessment of the phylogenetic affinities of euhelopus zdanskyi (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the early cretaceous of China
• A new giant sauropod, Australotitan cooperensis gen. et sp. nov., from the mid-Cretaceous of Australia
• Sunjiawan Formation [wikipedia]