Australia: The Land Where Time Began

A biography of the Australian continent 

Sauropodomorpha

Anatomical features

These were moderately variable with small heads, enlarged nostrils, blunt, nonserrated teeth. They had long, slender necks and long tails. They were quadrupedal or semiquadrupedal, and all could rear up on their hindlegs, and their arms and legs were not elongated or slender, with 5 fingers on their hands and 5-4 toes and the pelvis was small to large. Their skeletons were not pneumatic. Gizzard stones were sometimes present.

This group is composed of 2 groups, the Prosauropoda and the Sauropoda. The prosauropods were common in the Late Triassic and Jurassic. They included plateosaurids, melanorosaurids, massospondylids, thecodontosaurids, anchisaurids, blinkanosaurids and the largest forms, the long-necked Sauropoda. Sauropods were the largest known land animals. Brachiosaurus is estimated to have weighed about 80 tonnes and the south American Argentinosaurus is estimated to be more than 30 m long and weighing more up to 90 tonnes.

The families of sauropod are Vulcanodontidae, Diplodocidae, Brachiosauridae, Cetiosauridae, Camarosauridae, Nemegtosauridae, Titanosauridae, Dicraeosauridae, and Euhelopidae. Most of the sauropods lived in the Jurassic, but some, such as the Titanosauridae survived until the Late Cretaceous.

Links

1. DinoData
2. Peter Schouten

Sources & Further reading

1. Norman, David, 2005, Dinosaurs: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press 
2. Paul, Gregory S., 2010, The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs, Princeton University Press.