| Isanosaurus Temporal range: Late Triassic |
|
|---|---|
| Isanosaurus attavipachi femur | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Sauropsida |
| Superorder: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | Sauropodomorpha |
| Infraorder: | Sauropoda |
| Genus: | Isanosaurus |
| Species: | I. attavipachi |
| Binomial name | |
| Isanosaurus attavipachi Buffetaut et al., 2000 |
|
Isanosaurus (meaning "Isan [northeastern Thailand] lizard") was one of the first true sauropod dinosaurs, with all four legs always on the ground. It lived 210 million years ago in Thailand. The type species is Isanosaurus attavipachi. It is known from a partial skeleton, including a neck vertebra, a back vertebra and part of another, six tail vertebra, two chevrons, fragmentary ribs, the right sternal plate, the right shoulder blade, and the left thigh bone. These remains came from a skeleton that had unfortunately been mostly eroded away. The bones belonged to an individual perhaps 6.5 metres (21 ft) long, that may not have been fully grown. They were found in dark red sandstone of the Nam Phong Formation near the village of Ban Non Thaworn, in Chaiyaphum Province.[1]