I knew the “Q” entry in the Dinosaur Alphabet was going to be a challenge. There are only a handful of Q dinosaurs known so far, most are scrappy, and none are famous. How could Qingxiusaurus and Quaesitosaurus compete with Tyrannosaurus, Diplodocus, and other household names? But, of course, the whole point of the series is to highlight some dinosaurs that are lesser-known and that I’ve never talked about before. Today, I’m picking out the 100 million year old sauropod Qiaowanlong kangxii from the dinosaurian ranks.

Described in 2009 by paleontologists Hai-Lu You and Da-Qing Li, the tapering titanosaur was discovered in northwestern China’s Yujingzi Basin. All that was left of the dinosaur were