Amazonsaurus
Name:
Amazonsaurus
(Amazon lizard).
Phonetic: Am-ah-zon-sore-us.
Named By: Ismar de Souza Carvalho, Leonardo dos
Santos Avilla & Leonardo Salgado - 2003.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Sauropodomorpha, Sauropoda, Diplodocoidea,
Rebbachisauridae.
Species: A. maranhensis
(type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Estimated up to 12 meters long, but lack
of remains make it impossible to be certain.
Known locations: Brazil, Legal Amazon -
Itapecuru Formation.
Time period: Aptian to Albian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Partial post cranial remains
including dorsal (back) and caudal (tail) vertebrae, ribs and
a fragmentary pelvis.
Although
certainly not the only dinosaur to be discovered in Brazil,
Amazonsaurus was still the first discovered within
the Amazon Basin.
Amazonsaurus is confirmed as a diplodocoid
sauropod,
but the lack of
fossil remains makes it difficult to tell what kind. One possibility
is that Amazonsaurus might be a rebbachisaurid, a
sub group of the
Diplodocoidea whose members are known from the early Cretaceous with
some actually living in South America.
Study
of the areas that the Amazonsaurus holotype was
recovered from
indicates that back in the early Cretaceous it was a floodplain
associated with a river delta. Assuming that the Amazonsaurus
remains
were not washed down there from a location upstream, this would see
Amazonsaurus roaming in low lying; relatively open
ground while
feeding upon low growing vegetation.
Further reading
- Amazonsaurus maranhensis gen. et sp. nov.
(Sauropoda,
Diplodocoidea) from the Lower Cretaceous (Aptian–Albian) of
Brazil, Ismar de Souza Carvalho, Leonardo dos Santos Avilla
& Leonardo Salgado - 2003.
- Lower Cretaceous rebbachisaurid sauropods from Cerro Aguada del Le�n
(Lohan Cura Formation), Neuqu�n Province, northwestern Patagonia,
Argentina. - L. Salgado, A. Garrido, S. E. Cocca & J. R. Cocca
- 2004.
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