Venenosaurus

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Venenosaurus
Fossil range: Early Cretaceous

Extinct (fossil)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Sauropodomorpha
Infraorder:	Sauropoda
(unranked)	Titanosauria
Genus:	Venosaurus
Species:	V. dicrocei

Binomial name

Venenosaurus dicrocei
Tidwell et al, 2001

Venenosaurus (ve-NEE-no-SAWR-us - Latin venenum meaning "poison" and Greek sauros meaning "lizard") named after the Poison Strip Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation in Utah, where the fossils were discovered by Tidwell, Carpenter & Meyer in 2001. Venenosaurus is a relatively small (probably around 10 m (33 ft) long) titanosauriform sauropod, known from an incomplete skeleton of a single individual (Holotype: DMNH 40932 Denver Museum of Natural History), including caudal vertebrae, left scapula, right radius, left ulna, metacarpals, manus phalanges, right pubis, left and right ischia, metarsals, chevrons and ribs, found in the Early Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) Poison Strip Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation in Grand County, Utah. The tail vertebrae have unique morphologies: the centra of the proximal caudal vertebrae have a slightly convex anterior surface but a flat posterior surface; the middle caudal vertebrae combine forward-leaning neural spines with amphiplatyan (flat-at-both-ends) centra.