Xianshanosaurus

Xianshanosaurus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	†Sauropodomorpha
Clade:	†Somphospondyli
Clade:	†Titanosauria
Genus:	†Xianshanosaurus Lü et al., 2009
Type species
Xianshanosaurus shijiagouensis Lü et al., 2009

Xianshanosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the early Late Cretaceous of what is now China. It was described in 2009 by a team of Chinese paleontologists. The type species is X. shijiagouensis.^[1]

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:^[2]

Macronaria	Camarasaurus Giraffatitan Cedarosaurus Venenosaurus Malawisaurus Trigonosaurus Xianshanosaurus Gondwanatitan Aeolosaurus Alamosaurus Opisthocoelicaudia Neuquensaurus Rocasaurus Saltasaurus

References

1. Lü., J., Xu, L., Jiang, X., Jia, S., Li, M., Yuan, C., Zhang, X. and Ji, Q. (2009). "A preliminary report on the new dinosaurian fauna from the Cretaceous of the Ruyang Basin, Henan Province of central China." Journal of the Paleontological Society of Korea, 25: 43-56.
2. Wedel, M. J.; Taylor, M. P. (2013). "Caudal Pneumaticity and Pneumatic Hiatuses in the Sauropod Dinosaurs Giraffatitan and Apatosaurus". PLoS ONE 8 (10): e78213. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0078213.