Antarctosaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous,
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Hypothetical Antarctosaurus wichmannianus skull diagram showing the bones illustrated by von Huene in 1929. It's not certain that the mandible and braincase belong to the same individual or even same genus. | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Clade: | Dinosauria |
Clade: | Saurischia |
Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
Clade: | †Sauropoda |
Clade: | †Macronaria |
Clade: | †Titanosauria |
Clade: | †Colossosauria |
Genus: | †Antarctosaurus von Huene, 1929 |
Species | |
Synonyms | |
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Antarctosaurus (/ænˌtɑːrktoʊˈsɔːrəs/; meaning "southern lizard") is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now South America. The type species, Antarctosaurus wichmannianus, and a second species, Antarctosaurus giganteus, were described by prolific German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene in 1929. Three additional species of Antarctosaurus have been named since then but later studies have considered them dubious or unlikely to pertain to the genus.
The type species, A. wichmannianus, is controversial because there is uncertainty as to whether all the described remains belong to the same individual or even genus. The second species, A. giganteus, is considered dubious, but the fragmentary remains represent one of the largest dinosaurs known.