Cetiosauriscus

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Cetiosauriscus
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Sauropodomorpha
Infraorder: Sauropoda
Family: Diplodocidae
Genus: Cetiosauriscus
von Huene, 1927
Species
  • C. stewarti Charig, 1980 (type species)
  • C. greppini (von Huene, 1922)
  • C. glymptonensis (Phillips, 1871)

Cetiosauriscus (meaning "whale-lizard-like" i.e. "Cetiosaurus-like") was a close relative of Diplodocus and lived in the Middle to Late Jurassic Period of England (about 170 million years ago (mya). It was a quadrupedal, herbivorous, saurischian dinosaur.

It was first named by German palaeontologist Friedrich von Huene, in 1927 and is known from a series of vertebrae from the rear half of the skeleton. It has been estimated that this creature stood 6 metres high and was 15 metres in length, weighing about 9 tonnes.

It may have been preyed on by carnivores such as Megalosaurus and Eustreptospondylus.

[edit] References

  • Apesteguía, S., 2005. Evolution of the titanosaur metacarpus. pp. 321-345. In K. Carpenter & V. Tidwell (eds.), Thunder-Lizards: The Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press: Bloomington.
  • Charig, A.J., 1980. A diplodocid sauropod from the Lower Cretaceous of England. pp. 231-244. In L. L. Jacobs (ed.), Aspects of Vertebrate History: Essays in Honor of Edwin Harris Colbert. Museum of Northern Arizona Press: Flagstaff.
  • Charig, A.J., 1993. Case 2876. Cetiosauriscus von Huene, 1927 (Reptilia, Sauropodomorpha): proposed designation of C. stewarti Charig, 1980 as the type species. Bull. Zool. Nomencl. 50 (4): 282-83.
  • D. Schwarz, O. Wings, and C. A. Meyer. 2007. Super sizing the giants: first cartilage preservation at a sauropod dinosaur limb joint. Journal of the Geological Society, London 164:61-65.
  • von Huene, F., 1927. Short review of the present knowledge of the Sauropoda. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 9(1):121-126.
  • von Huene, F., 1927. Sichtung der Grundlagen der jetzigen Kenntnis der Sauropoden [Sorting through the basis of the current knowledge of sauropods]. Eclogae Geologica Helveticae 20:444-470.