Cetiosaurus
Name:
Cetiosaurus
(Whale lizard).
Phonetic: Seet-e-oh-sore-us.
Named By: Richard Owen - 1842.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Sauropodomorpha, Sauropoda, Cetiosauridae.
Species: C. brevis, C. longus, C.
medius, C. mogrebiensis, C. oxoniensis.
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Estimated around 16 meters long.
Known locations: England, France, Morocco.
Time period: Mid/Late Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Many individual specimens.
One
of the most common European sauropods
of the Jurassic, Cetiosaurus
is
actually one of the most primitive. In more advanced sauropods the
vertebrae are hollow as a weight saving feature, however Cetiosaurus
has solid vertebrae which hint at its basal position in the evolution
of sauropods. These solid vertebrae are similar to those of advanced
whales that have solid vertebrae so that their spines can withstand the
crushing pressures associated with very deep water. In a complete
contrast to sauropod evolution, the primitive whale forms such as
Basilosaurus
had hollow vertebrae which are why they are thought to
have roamed the upper depths.
Returning
back to sauropods, Cetiosaurus seems to have had
a distribution that
covered most of Western Europe all the way down to North Africa. At
sixteen meters long Cetiosaurus was a small to
medium sized sauropod,
but as a mid-Jurassic genera go it was a giant, with larger sauropod
dinosaurs such as Diplodocus
and Brachiosaurus
not appearing until the
very last stages of the Jurassic. Despite the size however,
Cetiosaurus could have been potential prey for
large mid Jurassic
theropods such as Megalosaurus
and Dubreuillosaurus.
Cetiosaurus
is the type genus of the Cetiosauridae, and currently Cetiosaurus
is
thought to be related to Patagosaurus
and Barapasaurus.
Further reading
- A description of a portion of the skeleton of the Cetiosaurus,
a
gigantic extinct saurian reptile occurring in the oolitic formations of
different portions of England. - Proceedings of the Geological Society
of London 3: 457–462. - Richard Owen - 1841.
- Monograph of the Mesozoic Reptilia, part 2: Monograph on the genus
Cetiosaurus. - Palaeontolographical Society
Monograph, 29: 27–43. -
Richard Owen - 1875.
- On parts of skeleton of Cetiosaurus leedsi, a
sauropodous dinosaur
from the Oxford Clay of Peterborough. - Proceedings of the Zoological
Society of London 1: 232–243 - A. S. Woodward - 1905.
- The Rutland Cetiosaurus: the anatomy and
relationships of a Middle
Jurassic British sauropod dinosaur. - Palaeontology 45 (6): 1049–1074.
- P. Upchurch & J. Martin - 2002.
- The Anatomy and Taxonomy of Cetiosaurus
(Saurischia, Sauropoda) from
the Middle Jurassic of England. - Journal of Vertebrate Palaeontology
23 (1): 208–231. - P. Upchurch & J. Martin - 2003.
- Case 3472: Cetiosaurus Owen, 1841 (Dinosauria,
Sauropoda): proposed
conservation of usage by designation of Cetiosaurus oxoniensis
Phillips, 1871 as the type species. - Bulletin of Zoological
Nomenclature 66 (1): 51–55. - P. Upchurch, J. Martin & M.
Taylor - 2009.
- The sauropod dinosaur Cetiosaurus OWEN in the
Bathonian (Middle
Jurassic) of the Ardennes (NE France): insular, but not dwarf [Le
sauropode dinosaurien Cetiosaurus OWEN dans le
Bathonien (Jurassique
Moyen) des Ardennes (NE France) : insulaire, mais pas nain]. - Carnets
de G�ologie, 2011: 149–161 - E. Buffetaut, B. Gibout, I. Launois
& C. Delacroix - 2011.
- OPINION 2331 (Case 3472): Cetiosaurus Owen, 1841
(Dinosauria,
Sauropoda): usage conserved by designation of Cetiosaurus
oxoniensis
Phillips, 1871 as the type species. - Bulletin of Zoological
Nomenclature 71(1): 48-50 - International Commission on Zoological
Nomenclature - 2014.
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