Sauroposeidon sɔːroʊ-poʊ-SEYEDƏN
"lizard earthquake god"
- Length
- 1.4 m (4.6 ft)
- Period
- Early Cretaceous (113–110 Mya)
- Place
- North America · Mexico · Wyoming, USA
- Food
- Herbivore
- Clade
- Dinosauria
Sauroposeidon ( ; meaning “lizard earthquake god”, after the Greek god Poseidon) is a genus of sauropod dinosaur known from several incomplete specimens including a bone bed and fossilized trackways that have been found in the U.S. states of Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Texas.
The fossils were found in rocks dating from near the end of the Early Cretaceous (Aptian–early Albian), from about 113 to 110 million years ago, a time when sauropod diversity in North America had greatly diminished. Alongside Abydosaurus and Sonorasaurus, it was one of the last known North American sauropod prior to an absence of the group on the continent of roughly 40 million years that ended with the appearance of Alamosaurus during the Maastrichtian.
What we know
- Named by Wedel, Cifelli & Sanders, 2000.
- Body length estimated at about 1.4 m.
- Fossils found in North America and Mexico.