Aragosaurus

Aragosaurus (meaning "Aragon lizard") was a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous period of Galve, province of Teruel, in the autonomous territory of Aragón, Spain.[1][2]

Aragosaurus
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, Hauterivian–Barremian
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Suborder: †Sauropodomorpha
Clade: †Sauropoda
Genus: †Aragosaurus
Sanz et al., 1987
Species:
†A. ischiaticus
Binomial name
†Aragosaurus ischiaticus
Sanz et al., 1987

Aragosaurus was a large, quadrupedal plant-eating (herbivorous) dinosaur, which lived during Berriasian, about 145-140 million years ago.[3] It was about 18 metres (59 ft) in length and about 25 tonnes in weight.[4]

Like other sauropods, it had a long neck, a long powerful tail, a small head and a bulky body. It was broadly similar to Camarasaurus. It is represented by a partial skeleton, which was found in Spain and was named by Sanz, Buscalioni, Casanovi and Santafe in 1987. The type species is A. ischiaticus. Like Camarasaurus, Aragosaurus probably had a short, compact skull and a moderately long neck. The teeth were large and wide, and would have been useful for slicing through the leaves and branches of tall conifer trees. The forelimbs were only a little shorter than the hind limbs, and the tail was long and muscular.

References
  1. Sanz, J.L., Buscalioni, A.D., Casanovas, M.L. y Santafé, J. V. 1987: Dinosaurios del Cretácico Inferior de Galve (Teruel, España). Estudios geológicos, volumen extraordinario Galve-Tremp: 45-64.
  2. Canudo, J.I., Gasca, J.M., Moreno, M., Aurell, M. 2011. New information about the stratigraphic position and age of the sauropod Aragosaurus ischiaticus from the Early Cretaceous of the Iberian Peninsula. Geological Magazine 149(2): 252-263, marzo de 2012 DOI: 10.1017/S0016756811000732
  3. Artai A. Santos, Uxue Villanueva-Amadoz, Rafael Royo-Torres, Luis Miguel Sender, Alberto Cobos, Luis Alcalá & José B. Diez (2018). Palaeobotanical records associated with the first dinosaur defined in Spain: Palynostratigraphy, taxonomy and palaeoenvironmental remarks. Cretaceous Research (advance online publication). doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2018.04.023
  4. Paul, G. S. (2010). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, p. 199
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