Dino card No. 1521 of 2,027

Qiupalong

Say it: chew-PAH-long

Name means: “dragon from the Qiupa Formation”1

Ate: A bit of everythingOstrich dinosLate Cretaceous

Qiupalong was a fast, ostrich-like dinosaur that lived at the very end of the Age of Dinosaurs. It had long legs, a toothless beak, and probably ate plants and small animals. Fossils of this dinosaur have been found in China and also in North America!1

Lived

72 to 66 million years ago2

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Henan Province, China, and also Alberta, Canada1

Food

A bit of everything1

Length

2.85 m1

estimate by Molina-Pérez and Larramendi

Weight

63 kg1

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 2 big dogs

as long as 3 dogs nose to tailas long as 16 bananas end to endas heavy as 13 watermelons

How big was Qiupalong compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Qiupalong is one of the few non-avian dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous known from both Asia and North America.1

The name Qiupalong means 'dragon from the Qiupa Formation', the rock layer where it was first found in China.1

Scientists think Qiupalong originally evolved in North America and later migrated to Asia near the end of the Cretaceous.1

The holotype specimen includes bones from the hips, legs, and feet, but no skull has been found yet.1

Qiupalong lived about 72 to 66 million years ago, during the Maastrichtian stage, the very last part of the Cretaceous Period.1 2

Its foot had a special 'arctometatarsalian' condition, where the middle toe bone was pinched at the top, making the foot slender and good for running.1

AI-made picture of Qiupalong — An AI-made picture of how Qiupalong 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 Qiupalong

?How big was Qiupalong?

About 2.85 metres (9.4 ft) long and weighed roughly 63 kilograms (139 lb), similar to a large ostrich.1 2

?What did Qiupalong eat?

Scientists think it ate plants and small animals, like other ornithomimids, since it had a toothless beak and no skull has been found to say for sure.1

?Was Qiupalong a dinosaur?

Yes, it was a theropod dinosaur, specifically a fast, ostrich-like ornithomimosaur.1 2

?Where did Qiupalong live?

It lived in what is now China, and a related species was found in North America, making it part of a group of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs found on both continents.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Qiupalong
Named by: Xu et al. 20112
Group: Ostrich dinos
Family / clade: Ornithomimidae2
Classification: Theropoda > Ornithomimosauria2
Age of the rocks: 72 to 66 million years (Maastrichtian)2
Rock formations: Qiupa2
Countries: China2
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database2
Discovery: Qiupalong was named in 2011 by a team of scientists from China, South Korea, Japan, and Canada, led by Li Xu. The first fossils were found in the Qiupa Formation of Henan, China.1
Still debated: Because no skull has been found, scientists are not sure exactly what Qiupalong ate, though it likely had a beak like other ornithomimids.1

Where the facts come from

Qiupalong (en.wikipedia.org)
Qiupalong 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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