Nagatitan, new titanosauriform from Lower Cretaceous of Thailand (free pdf)
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Ben Creisler
May 14, 2026, 11:27:31 AM (3 days ago) May 14
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Ben Creisler
‘Last titan’: Southeast Asia’s biggest dinosaur discovered
A new paper:
Free pdf:
Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis gen. et sp. nov.
Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul, Sasa-On Khansubha, Sita Manitkoon, Rattanaphorn Hanta, Philip D. Mannion & Paul Upchurch (2026)
The first sauropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Khok Kruat Formation of Thailand enriches the diversity of somphospondylan titanosauriforms in southeast Asia
Scientific Reports 16: 12467
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-47482-x
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-47482-x
Sauropod dinosaur remains comprise the majority of the Mesozoic vertebrate fossil record in Thailand. However, they are rare and fragmentary in the Aptian–Albian (Lower Cretaceous) Khok Kruat Formation, the stratigraphically youngest fossil-bearing Mesozoic Thai stratigraphic unit. Based on a partial postcranial skeleton, we present the first diagnostic sauropod specimen from this formation, which represents a new somphospondylan titanosauriform, Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis n. gen. n. sp. Nagatitan is diagnosed by two autapomorphies and a unique character combination, including the presence of two distinct hyposphene-hypantrum morphologies within the middle–posterior dorsal vertebrae. Phylogenetic analyses under maximum parsimony, using a data matrix containing 153 taxa and 570 characters, produce well-resolved topologies that place Nagatitan within the somphospondylan clade Euhelopodidae. Nagatitan does not form an endemic subclade with the approximately contemporaneous Southeast Asian euhelopodids Phuwiangosaurus and Tangvayosaurus, with a suite of anatomical features distinguishing these taxa. We estimate a body mass of 25–28 tonnes for Nagatitan, and suggest it was part of a broader middle Cretaceous body size increase in Asian titanosauriforms, facilitated by rising temperatures and expanded suitable habitat. The discovery of Nagatitan expands the known diversity of Southeast Asian sauropods and improves our understanding of titanosauriform biogeography within the region.
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Free pdf:
Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis gen. et sp. nov.
Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul, Sasa-On Khansubha, Sita Manitkoon, Rattanaphorn Hanta, Philip D. Mannion & Paul Upchurch (2026)
The first sauropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous Khok Kruat Formation of Thailand enriches the diversity of somphospondylan titanosauriforms in southeast Asia
Scientific Reports 16: 12467
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-47482-x
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-026-47482-x
Sauropod dinosaur remains comprise the majority of the Mesozoic vertebrate fossil record in Thailand. However, they are rare and fragmentary in the Aptian–Albian (Lower Cretaceous) Khok Kruat Formation, the stratigraphically youngest fossil-bearing Mesozoic Thai stratigraphic unit. Based on a partial postcranial skeleton, we present the first diagnostic sauropod specimen from this formation, which represents a new somphospondylan titanosauriform, Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis n. gen. n. sp. Nagatitan is diagnosed by two autapomorphies and a unique character combination, including the presence of two distinct hyposphene-hypantrum morphologies within the middle–posterior dorsal vertebrae. Phylogenetic analyses under maximum parsimony, using a data matrix containing 153 taxa and 570 characters, produce well-resolved topologies that place Nagatitan within the somphospondylan clade Euhelopodidae. Nagatitan does not form an endemic subclade with the approximately contemporaneous Southeast Asian euhelopodids Phuwiangosaurus and Tangvayosaurus, with a suite of anatomical features distinguishing these taxa. We estimate a body mass of 25–28 tonnes for Nagatitan, and suggest it was part of a broader middle Cretaceous body size increase in Asian titanosauriforms, facilitated by rising temperatures and expanded suitable habitat. The discovery of Nagatitan expands the known diversity of Southeast Asian sauropods and improves our understanding of titanosauriform biogeography within the region.
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‘Last titan’: Southeast Asia’s biggest dinosaur discovered
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