Aragosaurus

Aragosaurus
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, Berriasian
Restoration
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: †Sauropodomorpha
Clade: †Sauropoda
Clade: †Macronaria
Genus: †Aragosaurus
Sanz et al., 1987
Species:
†A. ischiaticus
Binomial name
†Aragosaurus ischiaticus
Sanz et al., 1987

Aragosaurus (meaning "Aragon lizard") was a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous period of Galve, province of Teruel, in the autonomous territory of Aragón, Spain.[1] It was deposited in the Villar del Arzobispo Formation.

Aragosaurus was a large, quadrupedal plant-eating (herbivorous) dinosaur, which lived during the early Berriasian, about 145-140 million years ago.[2] It was about 18 metres (59 ft) in length and about 25 tonnes in weight.[3]

Like other sauropods, it had a long neck, a long powerful tail, a small head and a bulky body. It was broadly similar to Camarasaurus. It is represented by a partial skeleton, which was found in Spain and was named by Sanz, Buscalioni, Casanovi and Santafe in 1987. The type species is A. ischiaticus. Like Camarasaurus, Aragosaurus probably had a short, compact skull and a moderately long neck. The teeth were large and wide, and would have been useful for slicing through the leaves and branches of tall conifer trees. The forelimbs were only a little shorter than the hind limbs, and the tail was long and muscular.

  1. ^ Sanz, J.L., Buscalioni, A.D., Casanovas, M.L. y Santafé, J. V. 1987: Dinosaurios del Cretácico Inferior de Galve (Teruel, España). Estudios Geológicos, volumen extraordinario Galve-Tremp: 45-64.
  2. ^ Artai A. Santos, Uxue Villanueva-Amadoz, Rafael Royo-Torres, Luis Miguel Sender, Alberto Cobos, Luis Alcalá & José B. Diez (2018). Palaeobotanical records associated with the first dinosaur defined in Spain: Palynostratigraphy, taxonomy and palaeoenvironmental remarks. Cretaceous Research (advance online publication). doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2018.04.023
  3. ^ Paul, G. S. (2010). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, p. 199