Cetiosaurus
Live reconstruction of Cetiosaurus Oxoniensis
- Europe ( England)
- North Africa ( Morocco)
- Cetiosaurus medius
- Cetiosaurus Oxoniensis
- Cetiosaurus mogrebiensis
Cetiosaurus ( " Walechse " ) is a genus of sauropod dinosaurs within the Cetiosauridae. The fossil remains of this early and original in many features of sauropods, which is phylogenetically at the base of Eusauropoda, have been found in rocks dating from the Middle Jurassic ( Bajocian to Bathonian ) in many places in England and in Morocco ( Beni- Mellal ). The type species of the genus is C. Oxoniensis.
Description
Cetiosaurus malnourished, like all sauropods of plants. The length of three of the species associated species - C. medius, C. and C. Oxoniensis mogrebiensis - varied 16 to 18 meters and its estimated weight was 15 to 20 tons, according to other sources up to 27 tons. The construction of the vertebrae was unique within the sauropods. The lateral articular processes of exceptionally massive vertebral body, which served as an approach for the back muscles were small and short and not big as in later sauropods and long drawn out. In addition, the characteristic of the later forms of erosion of the vertebrae missing. The hind legs were massive to carry the high body weight. The front legs were strongly developed in comparison with other early sauropods, including, for example, with the closely related Patagosaurus and Shunosaurus.
Fund history
Cetiosaurus was the earliest discovery of a sauropod and one of the first dinosaurs that were found. In the 1830s, possibly as early as 1809, his bones were found and examined by the most distinguished scientists of their time, Richard Owen, William Buckland and Georges Cuvier in England. Cuvier, the greatest authority this time in the field of Zoology, held the bones of a whale, because the vertebrae similar to those of these marine mammals have a rough surface. Owen said, but later that there had been a streamlined animal that had moved forward with a long tail like a crocodile in the water. Due to the characteristics of reptiles, he described the genus in 1841, a year before he set up the taxon "dinosaur", under the still valid name. Thomas Henry Huxley recognized until 1869 based on a nearly complete skeleton of Oxfordshire that it was a dinosaur in this animal. After this discovery Cetiosaurus was for some time as the largest land animal that ever lived.