Dino card No. 2019 of 2,027

Zhuchengtitan

Say it: ZHU-cheng-TIE-tan

Name means: “Zhucheng titan”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksLate Cretaceous

Zhuchengtitan was a giant, long-necked plant-eater that stomped through ancient floodplains in what is now China. It is known from just one huge arm bone, but that bone tells us it was a powerful titanosaur, a type of sauropod dinosaur.1

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Zangjiazhuang Quarry, Zhucheng, Shandong Province, China1

Food

Plants4

Length

up to 16.2 m3

estimate, largest known specimen

Weight

up to 12.5 tonnes3

estimate, largest known specimen

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 elephants

as long as 4 cars parked in a rowas long as 90 bananas end to endas heavy as 8 carsas heavy as 2500 watermelons

How big was Zhuchengtitan compared to YOU?

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

cool stuff

Fun facts

Zhuchengtitan is known only from a single humerus, or upper arm bone, that is 108 centimetres (43 inches) long.1

The top end of its humerus is extremely wide, measuring 55% of the bone's total length. This is one of the widest proportions of any titanosaur.2

Zhuchengtitan lived about 73.5 million years ago, during the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous.1

It shared its floodplain home with other dinosaurs like the duck-billed Shantungosaurus, the tyrannosaur Zhuchengtyrannus, and the horned Sinoceratops.1

Scientists think Zhuchengtitan was closely related to another titanosaur called Opisthocoelicaudia, because their arm bones are very similar in shape.1

The name Zhuchengtitan comes from the city of Zhucheng in China, where the fossil was found, plus the Greek word 'titan' meaning giant.1

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

?How big was Zhuchengtitan?

Nobody knows for sure, because only one upper arm bone has been found. That bone is 108 centimetres (43 inches) long, so it was a large sauropod, but its total size is unknown.1

?What did Zhuchengtitan eat?

It was a plant-eater, like all sauropods. It lived in floodplains and ate plants.1

?When did Zhuchengtitan live?

It lived about 73.5 million years ago, during the Campanian age of the Late Cretaceous.1

?Where was Zhuchengtitan found?

It was found in the Zangjiazhuang Quarry near Zhucheng, Shandong, China, in rocks of the Wangshi Group.1

Ask Rex about Zhuchengtitan

Rex only answers questions about this page. 3 questions a day.

Rex is an AI and can make mistakes. He runs on servers in the EU and questions are never saved. Never type your name or other personal things.

For dino experts

Scientific name: Zhuchengtitan
Named by: Mo et al. 20174
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Saltasauridae4
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda > Titanosauria > Macronaria4
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)4
Rock formations: Hongtuya4
Countries: China4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: The humerus of Zhuchengtitan was uncovered in 2008 at the Zangjiazhuang Quarry in Shandong, China. It was named and described in 2017 by Mo Jinyou and colleagues.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure exactly how big Zhuchengtitan was, because only one arm bone has been found. They also debate whether it was truly a saltasaurid or more closely related to other titanosaurs.1

Where the facts come from

Zhuchengtitan (en.wikipedia.org)
A new titanosaurian sauropod from the Late Cretaceous strata of Shandong Province (dzhtb.cgs.cn)
Zhuchengtitan zangjiazhuangensis | Dinosaur Database by DinoAnimals.com (dinoanimals.com)
Zhuchengtitan 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.

Rex is hungry! Dino Wiki is a dad's project for his dino-loving son, free with no ads. Grown-ups can feed Rex a snack to help keep it online.Feed Rex