Cetiosauriscus

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Cetiosauriscus

Extinct (fossil)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Sauropodomorpha
Infraorder:	Sauropoda
Family:	Diplodocidae
Genus:	Cetiosauriscus von Huene, 1927

Species

C. stewarti Charig, 1980 (type species)
C. greppini (von Huene, 1922)
C. leedsi (Hulke, 1887)

Cetiosauriscus (meaning "whale-lizard-like" i.e. "Cetiosaurus-like") was a close relative of Diplodocus and lived in the Middle to Late Jurassic Period of England (about 170 million years ago (mya). It was a quadrupedal, herbivorous, saurischian dinosaur.

It was first named by German palaeontologist Friedrich von Huene, in 1927 and is known from a series of vertebrae from the rear half of the skeleton. It has been estimated that this creature stood 6 metres high and was 15 metres in length, weighing about 9 tonnes.

It may have been preyed on by carnivores such as Megalosaurus and Eustreptospondylus.

*Note: Cetiosauriscus leedsi (Hulke, 1887), originally named as a species of Ornithopsis, has been referred to Pelorosaurus, but this referral is unsupported, as Pelorosaurus is undergoing taxonomic revision, with Ischyrosaurus, Dinodocus, Oplosaurus, and Gigantosaurus being relegated to Eusauropoda incertae sedis and to Turiasauria. C. leedsi was the original type species of Cetiosauriscus before C. stewarti was redefined as the type species of Cetiosauriscus (Charig, 1993; ICZN, 1995).

[edit] References

S. Apesteguía. 2005. Evolution of the titanosaur metacarpus. In K. Carpenter & V. Tidwell (eds.), Thunder-Lizards: The Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press, Bloomington 321-345.

Charig, A.J., 1980. A diplodocid sauropod from the Lower Cretaceous of England. In L. L. Jacobs (ed.), Aspects of Vertebrate History: Essays in Honor of Edwin Harris Colbert. Museum of Northern Arizona Press, Flagstaff 231-244.

Charig, A.J., 1993. Case 2876. Cetiosauriscus von Huene, 1927 (Reptilia, Sauropodomorpha): proposed designation of C. stewarti Charig, 1980 as the type species. Bull. Zool. Nomencl. 50 (4): 282-83.

D. Schwarz, O. Wings, and C. A. Meyer. 2007. Super sizing the giants: first cartilage preservation at a sauropod dinosaur limb joint. Journal of the Geological Society, London 164:61-65.

von Huene, F., 1927. Short review of the present knowledge of the Sauropoda. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 9(1):121-126.

von Huene, F., 1927. Sichtung der Grundlagen der jetzigen Kenntnis der Sauropoden [Sorting through the basis of the current knowledge of sauropods]. Eclogae Geologica Helveticae 20:444-470.