When dinosaurs ruled the earth, sauropods were well-deserved giants on land. These long-necked vegetarian dinosaurs were often able to grow to a length of more than twenty meters or even thirty meters, and often weighed dozens of tons. They migrate and feed on land in droves, relying on their large bodies and not even fearing the vast majority of carnivores. But you know what? In the families of these giants, there are also small men who are less than ten meters long! The dwarfs in these giants are the Europa Dragons who live in Europe.
Europaurus contrasts with the size of the skull of a long-necked dragon
Image credit: Nils Knötschke, CC BY-SA 2.5
Foot dinosaurs are famous for their large bodies, and in the Mesozoic Era when dinosaurs ruled the earth, sauropods were well-deserved giants on land. Although sauropod dinosaurs can often grow to a terrible scale of twenty or thirty meters long and weigh tens of tons, there are some mavericks in this family, just like a short dwarf in the giant family. This small dinosaur, whose name is Europaurus, is only about six meters long and weighs less than a ton, which is really small compared to other sauropods.
Map of the ecological restoration of The Holly European Dragon
Image credit: Gerhard Boeggemann, CC BY-SA 2.5
Europarons lived in the Late Jurassic Period, about 155 million years ago to 150 million years ago, and their homeland was in what is now northern Germany. In Europaron's time, it was still a warm shallow sea, and our small sauropod dinosaurs lived on small islands in the sea. The restoration shows a typical European Jurassic island topography. Dense coniferous forests, ferns and shallow waterfronts can be seen. The animals in the picture are Europa, Iguanodon, Archaeopteryx and Pterodactyl.
Skeleton restoration of Europa dragon
Image source: Ghedoghedo
The sauropod dinosaur was less than six meters long, and because the vegetation on the island could not satisfy the appetite of their counterparts living on the continent, europa dragons were surprisingly small due to the problem of insufficient food.
Europa Dragon's skull can be held up with two hands
Europaurus is small, and the skull can be held up with two hands, which is about the size of the skull of a large dog or pig.
Europaurus had vertebrae that appeared to have long nerve spines
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