Ampelosaurus
| Ampelosaurus | ||||||||||||
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Skeletal reconstruction of Ampelosaurus atacis |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Cretaceous (early Maastrichtian ) | ||||||||||||
| 72 to 69.9 million years | ||||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Ampelosaurus | ||||||||||||
| Le Loeuff , 1995 | ||||||||||||
| Art | ||||||||||||
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Ampelosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Titanosauria group . Fossils of this genus come from the late Upper Cretaceous (early Maastrichtian ) France . The only known species is Ampelosaurus atacis .
features
Ampelosaurus , like all sauropods, was a herbivore with a long neck and tail and reached an estimated length of about 15 meters. Like various other titanosaurs, Ampelosaurus carried bones ( osteoderms ) embedded in the skin , which in this genus are preserved in the form of plates, humps and spines and are between 25 and 28 centimeters long. So far only four such osteoderms have been discovered that can be attributed to Ampelosaurus . Since only too few titanosaur osteoderms are found, some researchers suspect that titanosaurs generally carried only a few osteoderms and that the body of the animals thus had too many unprotected areas for the osteoderms to be an effective defense against predators , as they did in the past was often suspected.
This genus can be distinguished from other titanosaurs by the vertebral arches and spinous processes of the vertebrae, which were directed obliquely backwards - at an angle of almost 45 ° to the vertical.
Systematics
The relationship of this genus within the Titanosauria is controversial. Within the Titanosauria, however, this genus is usually classified within the Lithostrotia (= Titanosauridae), which includes all derived (modern) Titanosauria.
Find and classification
The first skeleton was discovered in a vineyard near Campagne-sur-Aude in the Aude department in southern France. These bones were excavated from 1989 along with hundreds of other reptile bones in a total of twelve months of field work. Paleontologists from the Musée des Dinosaures in Esperaza , the CNRS and the Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle in Boulogne-sur-Mer were involved in the excavations . The rock of the site is known as the Bellevue layer and belongs to the lower Marnes-Rouges Formation , which is known for its numerous dinosaur finds. These deposits are fluvial (transported and deposited by a river) sediments . Other vertebrate fossils discovered together with the titanosaur bones include scales of the fish Lepisosteus , shell fragments of a turtle, fragmentary remains of a crocodile from the Eusuchia group and numerous bones of the ornithopod Rhabdodon priscus .
The holotype consists of three vertebrae in an anatomical network; Overall, the finds include most of the skeleton with the exception of the skull. The fossils are now kept in the Musée de Dinosaurs of Esperaza. In the same region, pieces of the skull and jaw were subsequently discovered, so that large parts of Ampelosaurus are known today.
Ampelosaurus was first scientifically described in 1995 by the French paleontologist Jean Le Loeuff . The generic name Ampelosaurus is ancient Greek for "vineyard lizard" and alludes to the place where it was found, the Blanquette de Limoux vineyard in Languedoc ( France ). So far only one species is known, Ampelosaurus atacis , named after the Latin name of the river Aude .
Individual evidence
- ^ Gregory S. Paul : The Princeton Field Guide To Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ et al. 2010, ISBN 978-0-691-13720-9 , p. 207, online .
- ↑ Thomas R. Holtz Jr .: Supplementary Information. to: Thomas R. Holtz Jr .: Dinosaurs. The most complete, up-to-date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of all ages. Random House, New York NY 2007, ISBN 978-0-375-82419-7 , online (PDF; 184.08 kB) .
- ↑ a b c d e Jean Le Loeuff: Ampelosaurus atacis (nov, gen., Nov. Sp.), Un nouveau Titanosauridae (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) du Crétacé supérieur de la Haute Vallée de l'Aude (France). In: Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences. Series 2, A: Earth and Planetary Science. Vol. 321, 1995, pp. 693-699.
- ↑ Michael D. D'Emic, Jeffrey A. Wilson, Sankar Chatterjee : The titanosaur (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) osteoderm record: review and first definitive specimen from India. In: Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Vol. 29, No. 1, 2009, ISSN 0272-4634 , pp. 165-177, doi : 10.1671 / 039.029.0131 .
- ↑ Jeffrey A. Wilson, Dhananjay M. Mohabey, Shanan E. Peters, Jason J. Head: Predation upon Hatchling Dinosaurs by a New Snake from the Late Cretaceous of India. In: PLoS Biol . Vol. 8, No. 3, 2010, e1000322, doi : 10.1371 / journal.pbio.1000322 .
- ^ A b Paul Upchurch , Paul M. Barrett , Peter Dodson : Sauropoda. In: David B. Weishampel , Peter Dodson, Halszka Osmólska (eds.): The Dinosauria . 2nd edition. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2004, ISBN 0-520-24209-2 , pp. 259-324.
- ↑ Kristina Curry Rogers: Titanosauria: A Phylogenetic Overview. In: Kristina Curry A. Rogers, Jeffrey A. Wilson (Eds.): The Sauropods. Evolution and Paleobiology. University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 2005, ISBN 0-520-24623-3 , pp. 50-103, doi : 10.1525 / california / 9780520246232.003.0003 .
