Ashuratitan

Ashuratitan magnificens (meaning "magnificent titan of Ashura") was a large kolonopod dinosaur from the late Dracian period. Known from fossil remains found in the deserts of its namesake country of Ashura (prior to gaining independence from the Aurlûnor Velande), Ashuratitan was one of the largest animals in history. The most complete specimen known measures at least 29 meters long. The creature was a herbivore, feeding on the tops of the coniferous trees that grew in its habitat.

Ashuratitan belonged to the macronarians, a clade of large-nosed browsing kolonopods from the Dracian and Qalmanian periods. These creatures were the tallest animals ever known to live, with the only taller living things being trees. They all evolved such height to browse on conifers like this; however, as conifers began to be replaced by broad-leaf angiosperm trees in the Iridaceous, these dinosaurs appear to have gone into decline. Large kolonopods are reported from the Iridaceous, but little is known about them as they are very fragmentary.

The specific environment that Ashuratitan was found in was a coastal plain to the east of the ancient Melwende Shan, a mountain range that has since eroded. Sediment from the Melwende Shan was laid down along the coast, forming the rocks of the Sawiya Formation, where Ashuratitan was found. The Sawiya Formation also preserves various other kolonopods, small ornithopods, parvosaurs, all three groups of theropods, and a few enigmatic armored herbivore Petavrosaurus.