In Depth
Sonorasaurus may look like an atypical brachiosaurid dinosaur (as in similar to the famous Brachiosaurus), but the genus actually represents the first known example of a brachiosaurid dinosaur in North America during the Cretaceous, specifically around the early/late Cretaceous boundary. This is yet further evidence that counters the now outdated theory that the sauropods/titanosaurs died out in North America by the Cretaceous period. Granted they do not seem to be as common as they were during the late Jurassic, but they were certainly not absent.
Sonorasaurus was named after the Sonora Desert of Arizona, while the type species name, S. thompsoni is named in honour of Richard Thompson who as a geology student first discovered the Sonorasaurus holotype fossils back in 1995.
Further Reading
- New Cretaceous brachiosaurid dinosaur, Sonorasaurus thompsoni gen et sp. nov, from Arizona. - Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science 31; 71-82. - R. Ratkevich - 1998. – Anatomy, systematics, paleoenvironment, growth, and age of the sauropod dinosaur Sonorasaurus thompsoni from the Cretaceous of Arizona, USA. – Journal of Paleontology. 90 (1): 102–132. – M. D. D’Emic, B. Z. Foreman & N. A. Jud – 2016.
