Cetiosauriscus siːteeoh-SƆːRIHSKUHS

"Etymology TBD"

You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Cetiosauriscus 15 m (49 ft) long
9 people holding hands
Length
15 m (49 ft)
Period
Middle Jurassic (168–163 Mya)
Place
United Kingdom
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Dinosauria

Cetiosauriscus ( ) is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived between 166 and 164 million years ago during the Callovian (Middle Jurassic Period) in what is now England. A herbivore, Cetiosauriscus had – by sauropod standards – a moderately long tail, and longer forelimbs, making them as long as its hindlimbs. It has been estimated as about 15 m long and between 4 and in weight.

The only known fossil includes most of the rear half of a skeleton as well as a forelimb (NHMUK PV R3078). Found in Cambridgeshire in the 1890s, it was described by Arthur Smith Woodward in 1905 as a new specimen of the species Cetiosaurus leedsi. This was changed in 1927, when Friedrich von Huene found NHMUK PV R3078 and the C. leedsi type specimen to be too different from Cetiosaurus, warranting its own genus, which he named Cetiosauriscus, meaning “Cetiosaurus-like”.

What we know

  • Named by Charig, 1980.
  • Body length estimated at about 15 m.
  • Fossils found in United Kingdom.