Xianshanosaurus


Xianshanosaurus is a genus of titanosaur sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of the Ruyang Basin in Henan Province, China. It was described in 2009 by a team of Chinese paleontologists. The type species is X. shijiagouensis.

Classification

Mathew Wedel and Mike Taylor, made a cladistic analysis of the pneumaticity of caudal vertebrae. The analysis found that Xianshanosaurus was a basal titanosaurian, with Malawisaurus and Trigonosaurus as its sister taxa. The cladogram found is shown below:

Habitat

Xianshanosaurus shared its habitat with Ruyangosaurus, "Huanghetitan" ruyangensis, Yunmenglong, Luoyanggia, and Zhongyuansaurus. The Haoling Formation was initially thought to be Cenomanian in age, but is now considered Aptian-Albian.