Dinosaurs A to Z
Saltasauridae

Yamanasaurus

"Yamana lizard"

Generic sauropod body-plan outline
You 1.8 m (5.9 ft) tall
Yamanasaurus 5 m (16.4 ft) long
as long as 3 people standing fingertip to fingertip
generic sauropod body plan, scaled to length — not a silhouette of Yamanasaurus
Length
5 m (16.4 ft)
Period
Cretaceous (145–66 Mya)
Food
Herbivore
Clade
Saltasauridae

Yamanasaurus (meaning “Yamana lizard”) is an extinct genus of saltasaurine titanosaurian dinosaur from the Río Playas Formation of Ecuador, which dates to the Campanian-Maastrichtian of the late Cretaceous period (approximately 75-70 million years ago). The type and only species is Yamanasaurus lojaensis, representing the first non-avian dinosaur described from Ecuador. The holotype, consisting of fragments of a humerus, ulna, tibia, two sacral vertebrae and a single caudal, was discovered in 2017.

What we know

  • Named by Apesteguía et al., 2020.

What we guess

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