Tongtianlong

stairway-to-heaven dragon

• tongtian · Chinese (Mandarin) · passage or stairway to heaven
• long · Chinese (Mandarin) · dragon

The name combines Mandarin "tongtian" (a path or stairway reaching heaven) with "long" (dragon). It alludes to the well-preserved specimen, which was found with its head and neck raised in a death pose, as if reaching skyward. The only known species is Tongtianlong limosus, with "limosus" meaning "muddy" in Latin, for the mud in which it was entombed.

Named by

Lü et al.

Year named

2016

Period

Late Cretaceous

Stage

Maastrichtian

Found in

Nanxiong Formation, Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province, China

An oviraptorid oviraptorosaur, a feathered theropod. It is known from a nearly complete skeleton with a crested skull. The "stairway to heaven" reading of the name and the exact formation details are from memory, so check them against the original description.