Rocasaurus
Name:
Rocasaurus
(Roca lizard).
Phonetic: Ro-ca-sore-us.
Named By: Leonardo Salgado and Claudia Azpilicueta
- 2000.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia,
Dinosauria, Saurischia, Sauropomorpha, Sauropoda.
Species: R. muniozi (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: About 8 meters long, possibly larger.
Known locations: Argentina, Rio Negro Province
- Allen Formation.
Time period: Campanian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial post cranial remains
including vertebrae, pubis, ischium and left femur, possibly of
a juvenile.
At
eight meters long Rocasaurus was actually quite
small for a sauropod,
though it still would have been one of the larger dinosaurs on the
landscapes of late Cretaceous Argentina. However if the holotype is
correctly interpreted as that of a juvenile, then adults of the genus
would have certainly grown larger.
Another
sauropod from the Allen Formation is Saltasaurus,
a genus that
Rocasaurus may have come into contact with while
pterosaurs
like
Aerotitan
flew overhead.
Further reading
- Un nuevo saltasaurino (Sauropoda, Titanosauridae) de la
provincia de Río Negro (Formación Allen, Cretácico Superior),
Patagonia, Argentina [A new saltasaurine (Sauropoda,
Titanosauridae) from Río Negro province (Allen Formation, Upper
Cretaceous), Patagonia, Argentina, Leonardo Salgado and Claudia
Azpilicueta - 2000.
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