Turiasaurus
Name:
Turiasaurus
(Turia lizard).
Phonetic: Tu-re-ah-sore-us.
Named By: R. Royo-Torres, A. Cobos &
L. Alcalá - 2006.
Synonyms: Riodevasaurus (nomen nudum).
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurichia, Sauropoda, Turiasauria.
Species: T. riodevensis
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Estimated to be roughly 30 meters long.
Skull about 70 centimetres long.
Known locations: Spain - Teruel Province -
Villar del Arzobispo Formation.
Time period: Late Jurassic/early Cretaceous
(Tithonian/Berriasian) boundary.
Fossil representation: Partial skull and post
cranial remains, making up almost half of the post cranial skeleton.
Without
doubt, Turiasaurus is one of the largest sauropod
dinosaurs to ever
roam the European continent. Early estimates of Turiasaurus
place the
potential length of this dinosaur beyond thirty-five meters, though
most now consider Turiasaurus to have been around
thirty meters long,
but still establishing Turiasaurus as one of the
biggest. Despite
being around thirty meters long however, Turiasaurus
had a
proportionately small head with a skull about seventy centimetres long.
Turiasaurus
was once informally named as Riodevasaurus, after Riodeva in Spain,
but this is now a nomen nudum. The name Turiasaurus
means ‘Turia
lizard’ but it should be pointed out that ‘Turia’ is the
Latinised form of Teruel, the name of the Province where the first
Turiasaurus fossils were found. Turiasaurus
has also become the type
genus of the Turiasaria (hence the similar name)
which also
includes the genera Losillasaurus,
Galveosaurus
and Zby.
This is
quite odd as usually the first named genus is used to establish the
group name, and in this instance it would be Losillasaurus
which was
named in 2001.
Further reading
- A Giant European Dinosaur and a New Sauropod Clade. - Science
314: 1925-1927. - R. Royo-Torres, A. Cobos & L.
Alcalá - 2006.
- The sauropod Turiasaurus riodevensis in the Late Jurassic of
Portugal. - Journal of vertebrate Paleontology, 29. - O. Mateus - 2009.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Random favourites
 |
 |
 |
 |