page_title: Huabeisaurus
section_title: Classification
hierarchical_section_title: Huabeisaurus / Classification
caption_attribution_description: Huabeisaurus - 03
context_page_description: Huabeisaurus was a genus of dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous. It was a sauropod which lived in what is present-day northern China. The type species, Huabeisaurus allocotus, was first described by Pang Qiqing and Cheng Zhengwu in 2000. Huabeisaurus is known from numerous remains found in the 1990s, which include teeth, partial limbs and vertebrae. Due to its relative completeness, Huabeisaurus represents a significant taxon for understanding sauropod evolution in Asia. Huabeisaurus comes from Kangdailiang and Houyu, Zhaojiagou Town, Tianzhen County, Shanxi province, China. The holotype was found in the unnamed upper member of the Huiquanpu Formation, which is Late Cretaceous in age based on ostracods, charophytes, and fission-track dating.
  Huabeisaurus measures 20 metres long and 5 metres high, as estimated by Pang and Cheng in 2000. It would have been a quadrupedal herbivore with a long neck and tail, like most other sauropods. The skeleton has been presumed to have belonged to an almost mature individual, because it lacks sutures on vertebrae, but not on pelvic material.
context_section_description: The original description of the species noted strong similarities between the osteology of Huabeisaurus and other Cretaceous East Asian sauropods, and in general, previous studies have pointed to some East Asian Cretaceous sauropod (like Nemegtosaurus and Phuwiangosaurus) as the sister taxon of Huabeisaurus. Since 2000, the year of the original description of Huabeisaurus, 17 new sauropod species have been erected from the Cretaceous of East Asia. Many authors have noted similarities among Cretaceous East Asian sauropods, often suggesting that several of these taxa belong to a clade grounded on a genus with well-known anatomy (like Nemegtosauridae, Opisthocoelicaudinae, and Euhelopodidae). Cladistic support was recently presented for a Euhelopodidae that consisted of exclusively Cretaceous-aged members, in contrast with traditional studies and early cladistic analyses that placed the existence of a Euhelopodidae with Jurassic forms. Both earlier and later analyses suggest some degree of endemism in East Asia, though its temporal duration remains uncertain. On a broader scale, an interesting evolutionary pattern has been recognized wherein all pre-Cretaceous Jurassic Asian sauropods lie outside of Neosauropoda, whereas all Cretaceous Asian sauropods are titanosauriforms. Refining and explaining these paleobiogeographic patterns through time rests on detailed comparisons and comprehensive phylogenetic studies including East Asian sauropods, which are currently lacking.
   
  Huabeisaurus has never been incorporated into a cladistic analysis, but several authors have commented on its affinities on comparative grounds. Buffetaut et al. reviewed the sauropods of Thailand and described Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous teeth similar to those of euhelopodids (in the traditional sense, i.e., Euhelopus, Mamenchisaurus and Omeisaurus) and others more reminiscent of Nemegtosaurus and Phuwiangosaurus (which they termed nemegtosaurids). Following these comparisons, Huabeisaurus was regarded as a nemegtosaurid by Buffetaut et al.. Upchurch et al. considered Huabeisaurus to represent a titanosauriform or titanosaur outside of Lithostrotia on the basis of a variety of features. You et al. suggested a close relationship between Huabeisaurus, Borealosaurus, and Opisthocoelicaudia. Mo et al. highlighted similarities among Huabeisaurus, Fusuisaurus, and Sonidosaurus. Tanimoto et al. considered Huabeisaurus to be closely related to Nemegtosaurus, Borealosaurus and the “Toba sauropod” of Japan (as members of Nemegtosauridae). Finally, it has recently been suggested by D'emic et al. that Huabeisaurus is a member of Euhelopodidae.
  A new family was erected to place Huabeisaurus in, along with the closely related Tangvayosaurus. The family was named Huabeisauridae. Recently, the family was again proposed, this time by D'Emic et al. because Euhelopodidae, which Huabeisaurus has been assigned to most recently, might have to be split into smaller clades throughout the Somphospondyli because of all the taxa assigned to it.
  Pang and Cheng tentatively suggested that "Titanosaurus" falloti be referred to Huabeisaurus. However, "T." falloti is only represented by femoral remains, and its femur bears no uniquely shared features with Huabeisaurus. Furthermore, the femora of Huabeisaurus and "T." falloti differ in the bevel of the distal end versus the long axis of the bone, so the two cannot represent the same genus.
caption: Alternate view of mount
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