Saltasaurus
Saltasaurus | |
---|---|
Life restoration | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
Clade: | †Sauropoda |
Clade: | †Macronaria |
Clade: | †Titanosauria |
Family: | †Saltasauridae |
Genus: | †Saltasaurus Powell , 1980
|
Species: | †S. loricatus
|
Binomial name | |
†Saltasaurus loricatus Bonaparte & Powell, 1980
| |
Synonyms | |
|
Saltasaurus (which means "lizard from
Discovery
The fossils of Saltasaurus were excavated by José Bonaparte, Martín Vince and Juan C. Leal between 1975 and 1977 at the Estancia "El Brete". The find was in 1977 reported in the scientific literature.[1]
Saltasaurus was named and described by Bonaparte and Jaime E. Powell in 1980. The type species is Saltasaurus loricatus. Its generic name is derived from Salta Province, the region of north-west Argentina where the first fossils were recovered. The specific name means "protected by small armoured plates" in Latin.[2]
The
Currently the only recognised
Description
Saltasaurus is very small compared to most other members of the Sauropoda. Powell estimated the adult length at six metres. In 2010, Gregory S. Paul estimated the maximum length at 8.5 metres (28 ft), the weight at 2.5 tonnes (2.8 short tons).[4]
The teeth of Saltasaurus were cylindrical, with spatulate points. Saltasaurus had a relatively short neck with shortened neck vertebrae. The vertebrae from the middle part of its tail had elongated
The osteoderms came in two types. There were larger oval plates with a length of up to twelve centimetres. These were keeled or spiked and perhaps were ordered in longitudinal rows along the back. The second type consists of small ossicles, rounded or pentagonal, about seven millimetres in diameter, that formed a continuous armour between the plates. A study in 2010 concluded that the larger plates had cancellous bone but that the ossicles had a denser bone tissue.[8]
Phylogeny
Saltasaurus in a cladogram after Navarro et al., 2022:[9]
Saltasauridae |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Palaeobiology
Like all sauropods, Saltasaurus was herbivorous. Because of its barrel-like rump, shaped like a hippopotamus, Powell suggested that Saltasaurus was aquatic. Despite its small stature, Saltasaurus was still graviportal like other sauropods, meaning it could not run because its hindlimbs had to be held straight at the load-bearing phase of their walking cycle. Powell assumed adult individuals were protected against predators by their body armour, while juveniles were protected by the herd as a whole.[3]
In the
Saltasaurus was one such titanosaur sauropod, and lived around 70
A new discovery, from another formation, may shed light on the nesting habits of Saltasaurus. A large titanosaurid
Footnotes
- ^ J.F. Bonaparte, J.A. Salfity, G. Bossi & J.E. Powell, 1977, "Hallazgo de dinosaurios y aves cretacicas en la Formación Lecho de El Brete (Salta), proximo al limite con Tucumán", Acta Geològica Lilloana 14: 5-17
- ^ J.F. Bonaparte and J.E. Powell, 1980, "A continental assemblage of tetrapods from the Upper Cretaceous beds of El Brete, northwestern Argentina (Sauropoda-Coelurosauria-Carnosauria-Aves)," Mémoires de la Société Géologique de France, Nouvelle Série 139: 19-28
- ^ a b Powell, J.E., 1992, "Osteología de Saltasaurus loricatus (Sauropoda Titanosauridae) del Cretácico Superior del noroeste Argentino" In: Sanz, J., Buscalioni, A. (Eds.), Los dinosaurios y su entorno biótico: Actas del Segundo Curso de Paleontología in Cuenca, pp. 165-230
- ^ Paul, G.S., 2010, The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs, Princeton University Press p. 213
- ^ "Caudal Vertebrae," Tidwell, Carpenter, and Meyer (2001). Page 145.
- ^ a b c "Caudal Vertebrae," Tidwell, Carpenter, and Meyer (2001). Page 147.
- ^ "Forelimb," Tidwell, Carpenter, and Meyer (2001). Page 148.
- ^ Ignacio A. Cerda and Jaime E. Powell, 2010, "Dermal Armor Histology of Saltasaurus loricatus, an Upper Cretaceous Sauropod Dinosaur from Northwest Argentina", Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, 55(3): 389-398
- S2CID 251875979.
- ^ Coria and Chiappe (2007).
References
- Coria, R.A. and Chiappe, L.M. 2007.Embryonic Skin From Late Cretaceous Sauropods (Dinosauria) of Auca Mahuevo, Patagonia, Argentina. Journal of Paleontology v81(6):1528-1532 doi:10.1666/05-150.1
- Tidwell, V., Carpenter, K. & Meyer, S. 2001. New Titanosauriform (Sauropoda) from the Poison Strip Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation (Lower Cretaceous), Utah. In: Mesozoic Vertebrate Life. D. H. Tanke & K. Carpenter (eds.). Indiana University Press, Eds. D.H. Tanke & K. Carpenter. Indiana University Press. 139–165.
Further reading
- Walking on Eggs: The Astonishing Discovery of Thousands of Dinosaur Eggs in the Badlands of Patagonia, by Luis Chiappe and Lowell Dingus. June 19, 2001, Scribner. ISBN 0-7432-1211-8.
External links
- Sauropodomorpha: Titanosauridae: 'Saltasaurus, by M. Alan Kazlev, from Palæos.
- The late Cretaceous nesting grounds of Patagonia Archived 2008-10-28 at the Wayback Machine, by Luis V. Rey, from his art gallery.