Standing Tall

 Possessing a femur approximately 70 cm (27.6 in) long and a tibia approximately 76 cm (30 in) long, Qianzhousaurus was a long-legged, though not overall a very tall, dinosaur. These measurements come from the holotype leg that was discovered and may not fully represent the adult height of Qianzhousaurus. Characteristics of the vertebrae indicate that this was an immature animal and, because we do not have an adult specimen, the full length of these legs is not currently known. However, as an immature specimen, possessing a hip probably a little above 1.46 m (57.5 in; this assumes hip height at femoral contact with the pelvis, not at the iliac blade as is often reported and therefore represents a shorter estimation of hip height) above the ground any additional height (from the foot, erectness of posture, and additional growth into adulthood) may allow for Qianzhousaurus to be a taller dinosaur than the current estimate. Estimated to be a little over 7 m (23 ft) from nose to tail, Qianzhousaurus is around 3 m (9.8 ft) shorter than Tarbosaurus bataar, a Mongolian tyrannosaur that appears to have been a contemporary neighbor. However, Qianzhousaurus is longer than either described Alioramus species, sister taxa within the Alioramini tribe, as they are both approximately (A. altai) or just over (A. remotus) 5 m (16.4 ft) in length. Depending on the juvenile status of the Alioramus discoveries, these estimates may be low end estimates as well.

Literature Cited

Brusatte, S. L., Carr, T. D., Erickson, G. M, Bever, G. S., Norell, M. A. (2009). A long-snouted, multihorned tyrannosaurid from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 106:17261–66.

Lü, J., Yi, L., Brusatte, S. L., Yang, L., Li, H., Chen, L. (2014). A new clade of Asian late Cretaceous long-snouted tyrannosaurids. Nat Commun 5:3788.