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Concept
Euhelopus
Summary
Euhelopus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived between 145 and 133 million years ago during the Berriasian and Valanginian stages of the Early Cretaceous in what is now Shandong Province in China. It was a large quadrupedal herbivore. Like sauropods such as brachiosaurs and titanosaurs, Euhelopus had longer forelegs than hind legs. This discovery was paleontologically significant because it represented the first dinosaur scientifically investigated from China: seen in 1913, rediscovered in 1922, and excavated in 1923 and studied by T'an during the same year. Unlike most sauropod specimens, it has a relatively complete skull.
Euhelopus was a long-necked sauropod similar to Mamenchisaurus, but its affinities are controversial. Most studies favor a close relationship between Euhelopus and titanosaurs, rather than mamenchisaurids.
Since its original description, Euhelopus was often been considered a rather large sauropod. It has been thought to weigh about and attain an adult length of . Later estimates have downsized this considerably. In 2016, Gregory S. Paul estimated the weight at and the body length at . Benson et al. estimated its mass as 5,924 kg. Larramendi et al. later estimated its mass as 3,628 kg.
Euhelopus was a relatively long-necked sauropod, with a 4-meter neck composed of 17 cervical vertebrae. The presacral vertebrae had a camellate pneumatic structure, made of many small pneumatic chambers, as is characteristic of titanosauriforms and some mamenchisaurids. Pneumatic chambers even extended into the ilium, as occurs in many titanosaurs. The humerus was apparently nearly as long as the femur, although there is some uncertainty in this ratio, as it is not certain that the humerus and femur from which this ratio was calculated belong to the same individual, and the femur in question is incomplete.
The original diagnosis by Wiman is outdated. A diagnosis is a statement of the anatomical features of an organism (or group) that collectively distinguish it from all other organisms.
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