Taohelong
- Length
- 5 m (16.4 ft)
- Period
- Early Cretaceous (113–110 Mya)
- Place
- Asia · China
- Food
- Herbivore
- Clade
- Nodosauridae Dinosauria Ornithischia Thyreophora Ankylosauria Ankylosaurs without the tail club.
Taohelong is a genus of nodosaurid dinosaur known from Early Cretaceous rocks in north-central China. It is based on Gansu Dinosaur Museum (GSDM) 00021, fossils including a tail vertebra, ribs, a left ilium (the main bone of the hip), and bony armor recovered from the Hekou Group in the Lanzhou-Minhe Basin. The animal’s armor includes part of a “sacral shield”, a carpet of osteoderms over the hips found in some other ankylosaurians. Taohelong was named and described in 2013 by Yang Jing-Tao, You Hai-Lu, Li Da-Qing, and Kong De-Lai. The type species is Taohelong jinchengensis. The generic name means “dragon (long) of the river (he) Tao”. The specific name refers to the provenance at Jincheng.
The describers established some diagnostic traits. The neural channel of the tail vertebra has a cross-section like an inverted trapezium.
What we know
- Named by Yang et al., 2013.
- Fossils found in Asia and China.
What we guess
The reconstruction notes for Taohelong — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.