Dino card No. 1514 of 2,027

Qianlong

Say it: chee-en-LONG

Name means: “dragon from Guizhou”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksEarly Jurassic

Qianlong was an early long-necked dinosaur that lived in what is now China. It is special because scientists found its eggs and babies next to the grown-ups, which helps us learn how these dinosaurs raised their families.1

Lived

200 to 193 million years ago2

Early Jurassic

Fossils found in

Zhuanpo, Pingba District, Anshun City, Guizhou Province, southwestern China1

Food

Plants2

Length

15 to 17 m1

estimated body length

Weight

5 tonnes to 7 tonnes1

estimated weight

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 5 cars

as long as 4 cars parked in a rowas long as 94 bananas end to endabout as heavy as an elephantas heavy as 1400 watermelons

How big was Qianlong compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

cool stuff

Fun facts

Qianlong had leathery eggs, like some modern reptiles, not hard shells like many dinosaurs.1

The eggs were about 11.5 cm by 9.4 cm (4.5 by 3.7 inches), which is big for an early sauropodomorph.1

Scientists found five clutches of eggs in a small area, suggesting Qianlong nested in colonies.1

The babies inside the eggs were in a posture that is halfway between how crocodiles and birds sit before hatching.1

All the embryos were at the same stage of development, meaning the babies hatched at the same time.1

Qianlong lived about 199 to 193 million years ago, during the Early Jurassic period.2

AI-made picture of Qianlong — An AI-made picture of how Qianlong might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Qianlong
Named by: Han et al. 20232
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Sauropodomorpha2
Classification: Sauropodomorpha2
Age of the rocks: 200 to 193 million years (Sinemurian)2
Rock formations: Ziliujing2
Countries: China2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Qianlong was named in 2023 by a team of scientists including F. Han. The fossils were found in Guizhou Province, China, and include three adult skeletons and five clutches of eggs with embryos.1 2
Still debated: Scientists are still debating whether all early sauropodomorphs had leathery eggs, or if that was special to Qianlong.1

Where the facts come from

Cai 4, Tianzhuang Wu 4, Yingfeng Wen 6, Sifu Cai 4, Chun Li 2, Rui Wu 1, Qi Zhao 2, Xing Xu (dinodata.de)
Qianlong in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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