DaxiatitanШаблон:Efn is a genus of sauropoddinosaur known from the Lower Cretaceous of Gansu, China. Its type and only species is Daxiatitan binglingi.Шаблон:Efn It is known from a single partial skeleton consisting of most of the neck and back vertebrae, two tail vertebrae, a shoulder blade, and a thigh bone. At the time of its discovery in 2008, Daxiatitan was regarded as potentially the largest known dinosaur from China.[1]
Daxiatitan and its type and only species Daxiatitan binglingi were named by You Hailu, Li Daqing, Zhou Lingqi, and Ji Qiang in 2008. The holotype of D. binglingi, GSLTZP03-001, was collected from the Hekou Group, in Gansu Province, and consists of ten cervical, ten dorsal, and two caudal vertebrae, cervical and dorsal ribs, a haemal arch, a scapulocoracoid, and a femur.[1]
The genus name refers to the Daxia River, a tributary of the Yellow River that runs through the area where the type specimen was found, and the species name refers to Bingling Temple, which is located in the region.[1]
Daxiatitan was initially described as a basal titanosaur,[1] and most subsequent studies have regarded it as a basal titanosaur or as a somphospondylan close to Titanosauria in Euhelopodidae. In 2020, a phylogenetic analysis conducted by Moore et al. found that Daxiatitan and Euhelopus may form a clade with mamenchisaurids.[2]
Daxiatitan was an exceptionally large dinosaur, among the largest known from China.[1] Its length has been estimated as Шаблон:Convert,Шаблон:Efn and its mass has been estimated as 23 tonnes.[3] The neck of Daxiatitan is estimated to have been approximately Шаблон:Convert long,Шаблон:Efn making it among the longer-necked sauropods, although still surpassed by the 15-meter neck of some of the largest mamenchisaurids and diplodocids.[4]
