Dino card No. 1516 of 2,027

Qiaowanlong

Say it: CHYOW-wan-long

Name means: “bridge bend dragon, after a cultural relic near the fossil site”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksEarly Cretaceous

Qiaowanlong was a long-necked plant-eating dinosaur that lived in China during the Early Cretaceous. It was a brachiosaurid, meaning it had front legs as long as or longer than its back legs, like a giant giraffe. This dinosaur is one of the first well-preserved brachiosaurids ever found in Asia.2 1

Lived

121 to 113 million years ago4

Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Yujingzi Basin, Gansu Province, China4 1

Food

Plants4

Length

12 to 20.7 m3

Weight

6 tonnes to 13 tonnes3

Height

4.3 m3

at the shoulder

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How tall was it?

at the shoulder

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 2 elephants

as long as 5 cars parked in a rowas long as 120 bananas end to endas heavy as 9 carsas heavy as 2600 watermelonsas tall as 2 doors stacked up

How big was Qiaowanlong compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Qiaowanlong is known from eight neck vertebrae and part of the hip, found in two rock blocks in 2007.1

Its neck bones were short compared to other brachiosaurids. For example, its sixth neck vertebra was only 43 cm long, while the same bone in Brachiosaurus was 90 cm.1

Even though Qiaowanlong was small for a brachiosaurid, the fused bones in its spine show it was an adult or nearly full-grown.1

Qiaowanlong had a special feature in its neck: the neural spines (bumps on top of the vertebrae) were deeply split into two branches.1

This dinosaur shared a trait with the North American brachiosaurid Sauroposeidon: both lacked a certain bone ridge in the neck vertebrae.2 1

The hip bone called the ischium was very reduced in Qiaowanlong, with a shaft only about half as wide as the pubis bone.1

Qiaowanlong lived alongside many other dinosaurs in the Yujingzi Basin, including therizinosaurs, tyrannosaurs, and early duck-billed dinosaurs.1

AI-made picture of Qiaowanlong — An AI-made picture of how Qiaowanlong 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.

you asked

Most asked questions about Qiaowanlong

?How big was Qiaowanlong?

Scientists disagree on its size. One estimate says it was about 12 metres (39 feet) long and weighed 6 tons, while another says it was 20.7 metres (68 feet) long and weighed 13 tons.3

?What did Qiaowanlong eat?

Qiaowanlong was a plant-eater. It used its long neck to reach leaves high in trees, like a giant giraffe.3 1

?When did Qiaowanlong live?

Qiaowanlong lived during the Early Cretaceous Period, about 125 to 113 million years ago.3 2

?Where was Qiaowanlong found?

Its fossils were discovered in the Yujingzi Basin in Gansu Province, China, in 2007.3 1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Qiaowanlong
Named by: You and Li 20094
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Euhelopodidae4
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda > Macronaria4
Age of the rocks: 121 to 113 million years (Aptian)4
Rock formations: Xiagou4
Countries: China4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Qiaowanlong was named in 2009 by paleontologists Hailu You and Daqing Li. The fossils were dug up in 2007 by a field crew from the Fossil Research and Development Center in Gansu, China.4 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Qiaowanlong grew, because only a partial skeleton has been found.1

Where the facts come from

The first well-preserved Early Cretaceous brachiosaurid dinosaur in Asia (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
The first well-preserved Early Cretaceous brachiosaurid dinosaur in Asia | Proceedings B | The Royal Society (royalsocietypublishing.org)
Qiaowanlong (en.wikipedia.org)
Qiaowanlong 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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