Name:
Datanglong
(Datang dragon).
Phonetic: Dah-tang-long.
Named By: Jinyou Mo, Fusheng Zhou, Guang Ning
Li, Zhen Hunag & Chenyun Cao - 2014.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Theropoda, Carcharodontosauria?
Species: D. guangxiensis
(type).
Diet: Carnivore.
Size: Estimated about 7-8 meters long.
Known locations: China, Guangxi Province.
Time period: Early Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial post cranial
remains, mostly of the hip bones and a dorsal (back) vertebra.
Datanglong
was a mid to large sized theropod dinosaur that lived in China during
the early Cretaceous period. At the time of its description only the
hip bones and dorsal vertebrae are known for this dinosaur, so we
have to take a best guess as to what this dinosaur looked like.
Unfortunately Datanglong was not named long before
controversy over
its identification set in. The original describers identified
Datanglong as a carcharodontosaur,
a type of large
theropod dinosaur
that was particularly common during the early Cretaceous. From this
comparison to other carcharodontosaurs led to an estimated size of
Datanglong of seven to eight meters in length.
Soon after however
another palaeontologist named Andrea Cau published a paper citing that
the original cladistic analysis was too heavily focused upon basal
tetanuran theropods. Cau then stated that the features on the
Datanglong holotype share more in common with the
coelurosaurs, and
perhaps may be a megaraptoran
theropod going bay the arrangement of the
hip given that the features used to identify Datanglong
as a
carcharodontosaur are also featured within the members Megaraptora.
Datanglong
can be broken down to English as ‘Datang dragon', a reference to
the Datang basin where the holotype specimen was discovered. The
species name guangxiensis simply means ‘from
Guangxi', a province
in China.
Further reading
- A New Carcharodontosauria (Theropoda) from the Early Cretaceous
of Guangxi, Southern China.- Acta Geologica Sinica 1 (88
(4). 1051-1059 - Jinyou Mo, Fusheng Zhou, Guang Ning Li,
Zhen Hunag & Chenyun Cao - 2014.
- Datanglong: un nuovo carcharodontosauriano?
(Italian)
[Datanlong: a new carcharodontosaur?]. Theropoda - Andrea
Cau - 2014.