Neosauropoda
Live reconstruction of Brachiosaurus
Neosauropoda is the name of sauropod dinosaurs. It includes the Diplodocoidea and Macronaria.
A typical basal Neosauropode is the genus Haplocanthosaurus. He lived about 155 million years ago in the late Jurassic. Even later genera, including Diplodocus, Apatosaurus and Brachiosaurus are defined as Neosauropoda.
The taxon was defined in 1986 by José Fernando Bonaparte.
Features
Neosauropoden were mostly very large always quadruped ( four-footed ) locomotive plant eaters ( herbivores ). The physique was similar in all Neosauropoden and is characterized by a usually very long neck and tail, a massive, barrel-shaped body with columnar legs, and a proportionately small head. They range in size from six meters in length when in Germany discovered island shape Europasaurus to over 30 meters in length and probably more than 70 tons weight with giant forms such as Argentinosaurus, their actual size, however - due to the mostly fragmentary finds - can only estimate.
Slightly older figures show, especially in the Diplodocoiden and titanosaurs as similar to a giraffe grazing by trees almost vertical stretch their long necks into the air and herschleifen the tail behind. Today, it is assumed that most Neosauropoden neck held horizontally above the ground. To what extent was the neck laterally and vertically movable, however, depends on the individual species and their vortex texture. The almost complete absence of tail imprints in fossil tracks suggests that the tail was kept above the ground.
System
Inside systematics
The two orders within the Neosauropoda are the Diplodocoidea and Macronaria. The cladogram of Upchurch et al. from 2004 shows the interior of systematics:
Diplodocidae
Camarasauridae
Titanosauria
Whether the Cetiosauridae also one of the Neosauropoden, is discussed, as they may be the root of the Neosauropoden. Therefore, the Cetiosauridae is considered paraphyletic.
Outer systematics
The cladogram shows the external system within the Eusauropoda; simplified by Upchurch et al. from the year 2004:
Neosauropoda