Rebbachisauridae
| Rebbachisaurids | |
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Limaysaurus tessonei skeleton restoration
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Superfamily: | †Diplodocoidea |
| Clade: | † Diplodocimorpha
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| Family: | †Rebbachisauridae Bonaparte, 1997 |
| Subgroups | |
Rebbachisauridae is a
Taxonomy
In 1990 sauropod specialist Jack McIntosh included the first known rebbachisaurid genus, the giant North African sauropod
| Rebbachisauridae |
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Cladogram after Fanti et al., 2015.[4]
| Rebbachisauridae | |
Evolutionary relationships and characteristics
Although all authorities agree that the rebbachisaurids are members of the superfamily
Rebbachisaurids are distinguished from other sauropods by their distinctive teeth, which have low angle, internal wear facets and asymmetrical enamel.
Unique among sauropods, at least some rebbachisaurids (such as Nigersaurus) are characterised by the presence of tooth batteries, similar to those of hadrosaur and ceratopsian dinosaurs. Such a feeding adaptation has thus developed independently three times among the dinosaurs.
So far, rebbachisaurids are known only from the middle and early part of the Late Cretaceous. They constitute the last known representatives of the dipldocoids, and lived alongside the titanosaurs until fairly late in the Cretaceous.
References
- Bonaparte J.F. (1997). "Rayososaurus agrioensis Bonaparte 1995". Ameghiniana. 34 (1): 116.
- McIntosh, J. S., 1990, "Sauropoda" in The Dinosauria, Edited by David B. Weishampel, Peter Dodson, and Halszka Osmólska. University of California Press, pp. 345–401.
- Barrett, P.M.and Dodson, P. 2004. "Sauropoda". In The Dinosauria, 2nd edition. Weishampel, Dodson, and Osmólska (eds.). University of California Press, Berkeley. pp. 259–322.
- .
- ------ (2005) "Overview of Sauropod Phylogeny and Evolution", in The Sauropods: Evolution and Paleobiology
- Wilson, J. A. and ISBN 0-520-24623-3
