Mussaurus
| Mussaurus | ||||||||||
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Mussaurus patagonicus , fossil of a young animal |
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||
| Upper Triassic ( Norium ) | ||||||||||
| 228 to 208.5 million years | ||||||||||
| Locations | ||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||
| Mussaurus | ||||||||||
| Bonaparte & Vince , 1979 | ||||||||||
Mussaurus (= "mouse lizard") is a herbivorous dinosaur from the group of Sauropodomorpha , which lived in South America during the Upper Triassic ( Norium ). The only species is Mussaurus patagonicus .
discovery
Mussaurus was discovered in South America in 1979 and described that same year. The description was based on a clutch of two eggs and extremely small young animal skeletons about 25 to 30 cm in length. Some medium-sized skeletons lead to larger specimens about three meters long, known as Plateosaurus sp. but differ from Plateosaurus by a different position of the third sacral vertebra and a different size and shape of the skull window in front of the eyes .
The weight of the pups is estimated to be around 1 kg, which is likely 0.2-0.4% of the weight of the adult.
literature
- Peter M. Galton , Paul Upchurch : Prosauropoda. 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. 232-258.
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. 164, online ( memento of the original of July 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
