Qiupalong henanensis is a theropod from the Ornithomimidae family. It would have been bipedal, feathered, with a small head ending in a toothless beak, and long legs, neck, and tail.
Qiupalong would have lived in the Lat Cretaceous plains of what is now Western Canada and Eastern China. With the finding of paratypes in Canada that are older than the Chinese holotype, it is theorized that Qiupalong migrated from what is now North America to China across a land bridge that existed at the time, Beringia.
The holotype consists of the back legs and hips. It was discovered in 2006 during a planned expedition to the Tantou Basin in the Chinese province of Henan, and was described in 2011. Three additional specimens from Dinosaur Provincial Park in Canada were determined to be possible paratypes of Qiupalong in a study from 2017.
The first paratype is a skull-less partial skeleton collected in 1921 by Charles Setinberg from Little Sandhill Creek in Alberta, Canada. It was orignally described as Struthiomimus altus in 1975. The second is a fused ankle/heel bone that was collected from Happy Jack's Ferry Crossing. The third potential paratype is a foot claw collected from the core area of Dinosaur Provincial Park.
Qiupalong comes from Pinyin. "Qiupa" refers to the Qiupa Formation where the holotype was discovered. "Long" translates to "dragon", which replaces the common "saurus" in Latin dinosaur names. Henanensis is Latin, meaning "from Henan", after the province in which it was discovered.
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