Sauropod series: 1st - 15th place introduction
01
Total 66
Meet sauropods from the Mesozoic era
Sauropods — long-necked, long-tailed, elephant-legged dinosaurs from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods — are among the largest animals ever known on Earth.
02
Total 66
Gentle Dragon
Gentle Dragon
Name:
Gentle dragon (Greek for "delicate lizard")
Habitat:
Asian woodlands
Historical period:
Middle Jurassic (165-160 million years ago)
Dimensions and weight:
It is about 30 feet long and weighs 5 tons
Diet:
plant
Distinguishing features:
Good size; Short and boxy skull
Abrosaurus is one of the paleontological exceptions that proves this rule: most Mesozoic sauropod and titanosaur fossils do not have skulls and fall off their bodies easily after death, but its well-preserved skull is all we know about this dinosaur.
Aravenosaurus was fairly small for sauropods – "only" about 30 feet and weighed about 5 tons from head to tail – but this can be explained by its Middle Jurassic origins, 10 or 15 million years before the really huge sauropods of the Late Jurassic period, like Diplodocus and Brachiosaurus.
This herbivore appears to be most closely related to the slightly later (and better known) North American sauropod Domescopic dinosaur.
03
Total 66
Abidosaurus
Abidosaurus
Name:
Abydos dragon (Greek "Abydos lizard")
Habitat:
Woodlands of North America
Historical period:
Middle Cretaceous (105 million years ago)
Dimensions and weight:
It is about 50 feet long and weighs 10-20 tons
Diet:
plant
Distinguishing features:
Large size; Long neck and tail
Paleontologists have been digging up new sauropod species, but what makes Arbidosaurus special is that its fossilized remains include a complete and three-part skull, all of which were found in a quarry in Utah.
In the vast majority of cases, unearthed sauropod bones don't have skulls — the small heads of these giant creatures are just loosely attached to their necks, so they can easily separate (and be kicked away by other dinosaurs) after they die.
Another interesting fact about Arbidosaurus is that all the fossils found so far are fossils of juvenile dragons that grew about 25 feet from head to tail – paleontologists speculate that adult dragons should have been twice as long. (By the way, the name Abidos refers to the sacred Egyptian city of Abydos, and legend has it that the head of the Egyptian god Osiris.) ）
04
Total 66
Amagaron
Amagaron
Amagasaurus was an exception to the rule of proof of sauropods: this relatively slender herbivore, with a row of sharp spines on its neck and back, was the only sauropod known to have evolved such powerful traits.
05
Total 66
Amazon Dragon
Name:
Amazonosaurus ("Amazon lizard" in Greek)
Habitat:
Woodlands of South America
Historical period:
Early Cretaceous (12.5-100 million years ago)
Dimensions and weight:
It is about 40 feet long and weighs 5 tons
Diet:
plant
Distinguishing features:
Good size; Long neck and tail
Perhaps because tropical rainforests are not suitable for paleontological exploration, few dinosaurs have been found in the Brazilian Amazon.
To date, one of the only known genera is Amazonosaurus, a medium-sized Early Cretaceous sauropod that appears to be related to Diplodocus North American and has only very limited fossil remains.
Amazonosaurus — and others like "diplodocus" sauropods — is notable for being one of the last "basal" sauropods, eventually replaced by Titanosaurus in the middle and late Cretaceous.
06
Total 66
High double-chambered dragon
High double-chambered dragon
Judging by its scattered fossil remains, the tall-chambered dinosaurus was an herbivore 80 feet long and weighing 50 tons, very similar to the more famous diplodocus; The confusion and rivalry among paleontologists is associated with the second named species of this sauropod, the fragile diplodocus.
07
Total 66
Brontosaurus
Long known as Brontosaurus ("Thunder Lizard"), this late Jurassic sauropod reverted to Brontosaurus when it was discovered that the latter name had priority (that is, it had been used to name a similar fossil specimen).
08
Total 66
Aragonosaurus
Aragonosaurus
Name:
Aragonosaurus (Greek "Aragon lizard")
Habitat:
Woodlands of Western Europe
Historical period:
Early Cretaceous (14-120 million years ago)
Dimensions and weight:
It is about 60 feet long and weighs 20-25 tons
Diet:
plant
Distinguishing features:
short head; The hindlimbs are longer than the forelimbs
Sauropods (and the light armored titanosaurus that inherited them) were distributed around the globe during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, so it was no surprise when paleontologists unearthed some of the remains of Aragonosaurus in northern Spain decades ago.
Dating back to the early Cretaceous, Aragonosaurus was one of the last classic giant sauropods before the appearance of Titanosaurus, measuring about 60 feet from head to tail and weighing about 20 to 25 tons. Its close relative appears to be Dometoposaurus, one of the most common sauropod dinosaurs in North America during the Late Jurassic.
Recently, a team of scientists reexamined the "model fossils" of Aragonosaurus and concluded that the herbivore may be older than previously thought, possibly dating back 140 million years.
This is important for two reasons: first, few dinosaur fossils date back to this part of the early Cretaceous, and second, Aragonosaurus (or a closely related dinosaur) may have been the direct ancestor of Titanosaurus, which later spread to all regions above Earth.
09
Total 66
Atlasaurus
Atlasaurus
Name:
Atlasaurus ("Atlas lizard" in Greek);
Habitat:
Woodlands of Africa
Historical period:
Middle Jurassic (165 million years ago)
Dimensions and weight:
It is about 50 feet long and weighs 10-15 tons
Diet:
plant
Distinguishing features:
Large size; Relatively long legs
Atlasaurus was only indirectly named after Atlas, the titan that carried the sky in Greek mythology: this mid-Jurassic sauropod was found in Morocco's Atlas Mountains, which themselves are named after the same legend.
The unusually long legs of Atlasaurus — longer than any other known genus of sauropods — suggest that it was unmistakably related to North American and Eurasian brachiosaurs, and it appears to be their southern branch.
Unlike sauropods, Atlasaurus was represented by a single, near-complete fossil specimen, including most of the skull.
10
Total 66
Startooth dragon
Startooth dragon
Name:
Startooth Dragon (Greek for "Startooth");
Habitat:
Woodlands of eastern North America
Historical period:
Early and Middle Cretaceous (120-110 million years ago)
Dimensions and weight:
It is about 50 feet long and weighs 20 tons
Diet:
plant
Distinguishing features:
Large size; Similarity to Brachiosaurus
For the official national dinosaur (for which it was honored by the State of Maryland in 1998), the provenance of Startooth Dragon is quite complicated.
This medium-sized sauropod was a close relative of the more famous Brachiosaurus, and it may or may not be the same animal as the Texas current state dinosaur Sidesaurus (it itself may soon lose its title as a more valuable candidate, and the situation in the Lone Star State is in a state of flux).
The importance of Startooth is historically more important than in paleontology; Two of its teeth were unearthed in Maryland as early as 1859, the first fully validated dinosaur found in that small state.
11
Total 66
Nanyang Dragon
Nanyang Dragon
Name:
Nanyang dragon ("Southern Liang" in Greek);
Habitat:
Woodlands of Africa
Historical period:
Late Jurassic (150 million years ago)
Dimensions and weight:
It is about 50 feet long and weighs 10 tons
Diet:
plant
Distinguishing features:
Large size; Extremely long neck and tail
The name Southern Dragon will generate two associations in the minds of ordinary dinosaur fans, one is correct and the other is wrong. True: Yes, this sauropod is named in reference to its closely related North American diplodocus.
Myth: The "australo" in this dinosaur's name does not refer to Australia; Instead, it means "south" in Greek, as in southern Africa.
A limited number of southern dragon fossil beds have been found in the same Tanzanian fossil beds, which have given rise to many other late Jurassic sauropods, including Girassosaurus (most likely a species of Brachiosaurus) and Yanenskiasaurus.
12
Total 66
Megapod
Megapod
Name:
Megapod (Greek for "thighed lizard");
Habitat:
South Asian plains
Historical period:
Early Middle Jurassic (190-175 million years ago)
Dimensions and weight:
It is about 60 feet long and weighs 20 tons
Diet:
plant
Distinguishing features:
long legs and neck; Short, deep head
Although its skeleton has not yet been fully reconstructed, scientists are fairly confident that Balapasaurus was one of the first giant sauropods — a four-legged herbivorous dinosaur that fed on plants and trees in the late Jurassic.
As far as paleontologists know, Balapasaurus had the classic sauropod appearance—thighs, thick body, long neck and tail, and small head—but was otherwise relatively undifferentiated, providing a common "template" for later sauropod evolution.
Interestingly, Balapasaurus is one of the few dinosaurs found in modern India.
So far, about six fossil specimens have been unearthed, but to date, no one has found the sauropod's skull (although scattered tooth remnants have been identified, which helps experts reconstruct the possible shape of its head).
This is not uncommon, as sauropod skulls are only loosely attached to the rest of their bones and are easily separated (by decay or erosion) after death.
13
Total 66
Heavy dragon
Can an adult heavy dragon lift its extremely long neck to a completely vertical height? This requires a warm-blooded metabolism and a huge, muscular heart, suggesting that this sauropod may have kept its neck level with the ground. See details of Chonglong
14
Total 66
Qiaolong
Qiaolong
Name:
Qiaolong (Greek for "beautiful lizard");
Habitat:
Asian woodlands
Historical period:
Late Jurassic (160-155 million years ago)
Dimensions and weight:
It is about 13 feet long and weighs 1,000 pounds
Diet:
plant
Distinguishing features:
long neck and tail; There are short spines on the back
If the television network existed in the Late Jurassic, Berusaurus would have made headlines at six o'clock: the sauropod was represented by no fewer than 17 young dragons found in a quarry whose bones had survived their drowning in flash floods.
Needless to say, Qiaolong was larger than a 1,000-pound specimen unearthed in China; Some paleontologists believe that this is the same dinosaur as the lesser-known Cramelisaurus, which was about 50 feet long from head to tail and weighed between 15 and 20 tons.
15
Total 66
Sulcus spondylosaurus
Sulcus spondylosaurus
Name:
groophosaurus (Greek for "excavated vertebrae"); Habitat:
Woodlands of Western Europe
Historical period:
Late Jurassic (155-150 million years ago)
Dimensions and weight:
It is about 50-60 feet long and weighs 15-25 tons
Diet:
plant
Distinguishing features:
Large size; Long neck and tail
The reputation of Sulophosaurus has taken a major hit in the last century or so.
In 1875, the famous paleontologist Richard Owen "diagnosed" four huge vertebrae unearthed in British geological formations that the grooveous dragon was a giant sauropod from the late Jurassic and belonged to Brachiosaurus.
Unfortunately, Owen did not name one, but four separate dinosaurus species, some of which were quickly reassigned by other experts to genera that also did not exist at the (now) level, such as Ornithischiosaurus and Verbenosaurus.
Sulcusaurus is now largely ignored by paleontologists, although a fifth species (unspecified by Owen) survived as Labrosaurus.
Author's point of view
It can be said that sauropods were once the largest animals on land. All the fossils that have been found in the world today, and all living animals, have surpassed them.
bibliography
"On the Origin of Species"