A new titanosaurian sauropod from the Late Cretaceous strata of Shandong Province

Specimen ZJZ-57, a nearly complete sauropod humerus excavated from the Upper Cretaceous Wangshi Group of Zhucheng area, Shandong Province, is described in this paper. Some derived features, such as a lateral bulge at the proximal onethird position of the lateral margin and a deltopectoral crest markedly expanded distally, indicate that ZJZ-57 represents a member of Titanosauria. However, it differs from all other titanosaurian sauropods in the following combined features:the proximal portion is strongly expanded, reaching 55% of the total length of the bone, and the humerus is a robust bone, with a robustness index (RI) of 0.39. Based on this specimen, the authors erect a new sauropod taxon:Zhuchengtitan zangjiazhuangensis gen. et sp. nov. This new taxon is possibly more closely related to Opisthocoelicaudia than to other known titanosaurian sauropods from Asia. This is the first ti-tanosaurian sauropod reported from the Upper Cretaceous strata of Shandong Province.