Dinosaurs A to Z
Saltasauridae

Abditosaurus kuehnei

"forgotten lizard"

Generic sauropod body-plan outline
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Abditosaurus 18 m (57 ft) long
as long as 10 people standing fingertip to fingertip
generic sauropod body plan, scaled to length — not a silhouette of Abditosaurus
Length
18 m (57 ft)
Period
Late Cretaceous (70.5 Mya)
Place
South America · Africa · Europe · France
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Saltasauridae

Abditosaurus (meaning “forgotten lizard”) is an extinct genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) Conques Formation (Tremp Group) of Catalonia, Spain. The genus contains a single species, Abditosaurus kuehnei, known from a partial specimen representing the most complete titanosaur skeleton found in Europe. Phylogenetic analyses recover it within a clade of South American and African saltasaurines, distinct from other insular dwarf sauropods from the European archipelago. Abditosaurus inhabited the Ibero-Armorican Island, a prehistoric island made up of what is now Spain, Portugal, and southern France, and would have been the largest titanosaur species in its environment.

What we know

  • Named by Vila et al., 2022.
  • Body length estimated at about 17.5 m.
  • Fossils found in South America and Africa.

What we guess

The reconstruction notes for Abditosaurus — soft tissue, color, behavior — haven't been written up yet. Only the recorded basics above are filled in so far.