Zapalasaurus

Zapalasaurus
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Sauropsida
Superorder: Dinosauria
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Sauropodomorpha
Infraorder: Sauropoda
Superfamily: Diplodocoidea
Family: Rebbachisauridae[1][2]
Genus: Zapalasaurus
Salgado, Carvalho & Garrido 2006
Species
  • Z. bonapartei Salgado et al. 2006 (type)

Zapalasaurus is a genus of dinosaur described by Leonardo Salgado, Ismar de Souza Carvalho and Alberto C. It was named after the city of Zapala. The type species, Zapalasaurus bonapartei, was found in the La Amarga Formation of the Neuquén Basin, Neuquén Province, Argentina. It was a diplodocoid, a long-necked herbivore, and it lived during the Early Cretaceous. The authors conclude from examining the skeleton that "The record of Zapalasaurus bonapartei shows that, at least in the Neuquén Basin, basal diplodocoids were more diverse than previously thought." The Zapalasaurus is assumed to have a long neck which would have been developed for feeding adaption, allowing it's neck to swing in an arc like shape. This would allow the Zapalasaurus to browse a wide variety of plants and greens without having to walk very far.

References

  1. ↑ Paul C. Sereno; Jeffrey A. Wilson; Lawrence M. Witmer; John A. Whitlock; Abdoulaye Maga; Oumarou Ide; Timothy A. Rowe (2007). "Structural Extremes in a Cretaceous Dinosaur". PLoS ONE. 2 (11): e1230. Bibcode:2007PLoSO...2.1230S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001230. PMC 2077925. PMID 18030355.
  2. ↑ Fidel Torcida Fernández-Baldor, José Ignacio Canudo, Pedro Huerta, Diego Montero, Xabier Pereda Suberbiola and Leonardo Salgado (2011). "Demandasaurus darwini, a new rebbachisaurid sauropod from the Early Cretaceous of the Iberian Peninsula". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 56. doi:10.4202/app.2010.0003.
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