Puertasaurus Puertasaurus

"Etymology TBD"

You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Puertasaurus 40 m (131 ft) long
23 people holding hands
Length
40 m (131 ft)
Period
Late Cretaceous (76–70 Mya)
Place
South America · Argentina
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Dinosauria

Puertasaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived in South America during the Late Cretaceous Period. It is known from a single specimen recovered from sedimentary rocks of the Cerro Fortaleza Formation in southwestern Patagonia, Argentina, which probably is Campanian or Maastrichtian in age. The only species is Puertasaurus reuili. Described by the paleontologist Fernando Novas and colleagues in 2005, it was named in honor of Pablo Puerta and Santiago Reuil, who discovered and prepared the specimen. It consists of four well-preserved vertebrae, including one cervical, one dorsal, and two caudal vertebrae. Puertasaurus is a member of Titanosauria, the dominant group of sauropods during the Cretaceous.

Puertasaurus was a very large animal. Its size is difficult to estimate due to the scarcity of its remains, but current estimates place it around 30 m long and 50 MT in mass.

What we know

  • Named by Novas et al., 2005.
  • Body length estimated at about 40 m.
  • Fossils found in South America and Argentina.