| Nanshiungosaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
~ | |
|---|---|
| |
| Skeletal restoration of the holotype | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | Theropoda |
| Superfamily: | †Therizinosauroidea |
| Family: | †Therizinosauridae |
| Genus: | †Nanshiungosaurus Dong, 1979 |
| Type species | |
| †Nanshiungosaurus brevispinus Dong, 1979
| |
Nanshiungosaurus (meaning "Nanxiong's lizard") is a genus of therizinosaurid that lived in what is now Asia during the Late Cretaceous of South China. The type species, Nanshiungosaurus brevispinus, was first discovered in 1974 and described in 1979 by Dong Zhiming. It is represented by a single specimen preserving most of the cervical and dorsal vertebrae with the pelvis. A supposed and unlikely second species, "Nanshiungosaurus" bohlini, was found in 1992 and described in 1997. It is also represented by vertebrae but this species however, differs in geological age and lacks authentic characteristics compared to the type, making its affinity to the genus unsupported.
It was a large-sized therizinosaurid that is estimated to have cover nearly 5 m (16 ft) in length and to have weighed about 600–907 kg (1,323–2,000 lb). Nanshiungosaurus had a very pneumatized vertebral column with the posterior cervical vertebrae of the long neck being unusually robust and slightly more elongated than the dorsals. It was equipped with a broad torso as seen on the bulky pelvis. As for other therizinosaurids, it had a keratinous beak used when feeding, stocky feet with four weight-bearing toes and large flattened claws.
Nanshiungosaurus is classified as a therizinosaurian dinosaur. Along with Therizinosaurus and Segnosaurus, Nanshiungosaurus was one of the earliest therizinosaurs to be described and named. The unusual shape of the pelvis led Dong—the original describer—to interpret the remains as belonging to some dwarf sauropod, but during the 1990s the genus was recognized as a segnosaur (now therizinosaur) based the pelvic similarities with Segnosaurus. At first, the research on therizinosaurs was complicated since sparse remains were known at the time and these had features from multiple dinosaur lineages leading to their interpretation as prosauropod dinosaurs.