[3] In April 1923, H. C. T'an discovered the remains in the east of Shandong at the village of Ch'ing-kang-kou, ten kilometres southeast of Lai Yang.

In October of the same year they were excavated by Tan's associate, the Austrian paleontologist Otto Zdansky.

[8] The type species Tanius sinensis was found in the Jiangjunding Formation of the Chinese Wangshi Group.

The Wangshi group of geologic formations is generally considered to be from the Late Cretaceous, although some regions are older.

As the Hongtuya is directly older than the Jiangjunding, it was identified that Tanius sinensis lived in the latest Campanian to earliest Maastrichtian by Borinder in 2015.

Taxa that lived alongside Tanius in the formation include the ankylosaur Pinacosaurus cf.

The sediment in the location of the hadrosaur excavations was deposited by a mudflow event, where the carcasses were trapped and moved a short distance before rapid burial.