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Titanosaurs
Titanosaurs (or titanosaurians; members of the group Titanosauria) were a diverse group of Sauropoda, sauropod dinosaurs, including genera from all seven continents. The titanosaurs were the last surviving group of long-necked sauropods, with taxa still thriving at the time of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous. This group includes some of the Largest land animal, largest land animals known to have ever existed, such as ''Patagotitan'', estimated at long with a mass of , and the comparably-sized ''Argentinosaurus'' and ''Puertasaurus'' from the Patagonia, same region. The group's name alludes to the mythological Titan (mythology), Titans of ancient Greek mythology, via the type genus (now considered a ''nomen dubium)'' ''Titanosaurus''. Together with the Brachiosauridae, brachiosaurids and relatives, titanosaurs make up the larger sauropod clade Titanosauriformes. Titanosaurs have long been a poorly-known group, and the rela ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lithostrotia
Lithostrotia is a clade of derived titanosaur sauropods that lived during the Early Cretaceous and Late Cretaceous. The group was defined by Upchurch ''et al.'' in 2004 as the most recent common ancestor of ''Malawisaurus'' and ''Saltasaurus'' and all the descendants of that ancestor. Lithostrotia is derived from the Ancient Greek , meaning "inlaid with stones", referring to the fact that many known lithostrotians are preserved with osteoderms. However, osteoderms are not a distinguishing feature of the group, as the two noted by Unchurch ''et al.'' include caudal vertebrae with strongly concave front faces (procoely), although the farthest vertebrae are not procoelous. History of research In 1895, Richard Lydekker named the family Titanosauridae to summarize sauropods with procoelous (concave on the front) caudal vertebrae. The name Titanosauridae has since been widely used, and was defined by Salgado and colleagues (1997), Gonzalaz-Riga (2003), and Salgado (2003) as a node-based ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
