Datanglong is an extinct genus of carcharodontosaurian theropod belonging to the Tetanurae. It existed during the Early Cretaceous (Barremian-Albian) in what is now southeastern China.
Discovery and naming[]
In 2011, staff of the Geological Survey Research Institute at the village of Nazao, twenty kilometers southwest of the town of Datang, near Nanning in Guangxi, discovered the remains of a large theropod new to science. The dinosaur was named and described in 2014 as Datanglong guangxiensis, by Mo Jinyou, Zhou Fusheng, Li Guangning, Hunag Zhen and Cao Chenyun. The genus name combines a reference to the Datang basin with the Chinese word long, "dragon". The specific name refers to the province of Guangxi.
Datanglong so far has one specimen that has been found. The specimen named GMG 00001, contained vertebrae and hip bones. The bones were found in a layer of the Xinlong Formation, which was deposited sometime during the Early Cretaceous.
Description[]
Datanglong was a relatively large carnivore for its time, reaching up to lengths of 7 to 8 meters or 23 to 26 feet.
Phylogeny[]
The describing authors placed Datanglong in the Carcharodontosauria, in a basal position, making use of a previous cladistic analysis of Matthew Carrano. Soon after the publication, the Italian paleontologist Andrea Cau pointed out that this analysis had been strongly focused on the basal Tetanurae and therefore contained few traits of the Coelurosauria. That carried the danger that basal coelurosaurians were misplaced. Cau entered the traits of Datanglong into his own, more comprehensive, analysis and this indeed revealed that Datanglong was a basal coelurosaur. If this is correct, it would be the first known basal coelurosaur of a truly large size. He also directed attention to the fact that all synapomorphies that Datanglong shared with the Carcharodontosauria (the pneumatized cavities in the ilium and the pin-and-socket connection between the ilium and the ischium) were also shared with the Megaraptora. In 2017, Adun Samathi and Phorphen Chanthasit reported in an SVP abstract that they found Datanglong to nest in Megaraptora, "sharing the pneumaticity of the ilium with other megaraptorans."
Gallery[]
