Cedarosaurus
Name:
Cedarosaurus
(Cedar lizard- after the Cedar Mountain Formation).
Phonetic: See-dah-roe-sore-us.
Named By: V. Tidwell, K. Carpenter, &
W. Brooks - 1999.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Sauropodomorpha, Sauropoda, Titanosauriformes,
Brachiosauridae.
Species: C. weiskopfae
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Unavailable.
Known locations: USA, Texas - Paluxy
Formation, Utah - Cedar Mountain Formation - Yellow Cat
member.
Time period: Barremian to Aptian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial post cranial remains
of at least three individuals.
The
cedar
mountain Formation is becoming increasingly well known for the presence
of brachiosaurid sauropods,
and aside from Cedarosaurus,
Abydosaurus
and Venenosaurus
are also present in different Members.
Another sauropod, Brontomerus
is also known from the Cedar Mountain
Formation. Cedarosaurus stands out from others by
a number of
features, but mainly the foreleg bones which are noted as being more
gracile than the other genera there.
As
a brachiosaurid sauropod,
Cedarosaurus was probably a browser of tall
vegetation growing around
the height of the tree canopy. This would have allowed it co-exist
with other types of herbivorous dinosaurs such as ornithopod like
Cedrorestes, Hippodraco and Iguanocolossus
as well as armoured
nodosaurs like Gastonia.
A
principal predator of
Cedarosaurus may have been the large dromaeosaurid
theropod dinosaur
Utahraptor,
fossils for which have been in the same areas dating from
roughly the same time as Cedarosaurus. Bigger
threats may have also
come from large carcharodontosaurid
theropods similar to
Acrocanthosaurus
which would have been roaming around what would become
the United States back in the early Cretaceous.
Further reading
- New sauropod from the Lower Cretaceous of Utah, USA, V.
Tidwell, K. Carpenter, & W. Brooks - 1999.
- Gastroliths from the Lower Cretaceous sauropod Cedarosaurus
weiskopfae - F. Sanders, K. Manley & K. Carpenter - 2001.
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