Macronaria

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Macronarians
Fossil range: Jurassic–Cretaceous

Giraffatitan brancai by John Conway

Conservation status

Extinct (fossil)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Sauropodomorpha
Infraorder:	Sauropoda
(unranked)	Macronaria

Families

The Macronaria were a clade of sauropods from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) to Late Cretaceous Periods of what are now North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The name means 'large nostrils', in reference to the large nasal openings high on the head that probably supported fleshy resonating chambers. The clade was last redefined by Paul Sereno in 2005 (altering the internal specifiers from genera to species), as the group containing all species closer to Saltasaurus loricatus than to Diplodocus longus. Macronaria consists of two main groups: the family Camarasauridae, and the clade Titanosauriformes. Titanosauriformes in turn contains the brachiosaurids and the titanosaurians and is the one of the largest sauropod groups, which also contains most of the longest, tallest and most massive dinosaurs of all time.

[edit] Taxonomy

Suborder Sauropodomorpha

MACRONARIA
- Family Camarasauridae
  - Cathetosaurus
  - Phuwiangosaurus
  - Aragosaurus
  - Camarasaurus
- Titanosauriformes
  - ?Cedarosaurus
  - ?Huabeisaurus
  - ?Venenosaurus
  - Europasaurus
  - Fusuisaurus
  - Family Brachiosauridae
    - Lusotitan
    - Brachiosaurus
    - Giraffatitan
    - Sauroposeidon
  - Superfamily Titanosauroidea
    - Family Euhelopodidae
    - Euhelopus
    - Erketu
    - Titanosauria
      - Family Nemegtosauridae
      - Family Saltasauridae
        
        Opisthocoelicaudia
        
        Subfamily Saltasaurinae
        
        Neuquensaurus
        
        Saltasaurus

[edit] References

Upchurch, P. (1998). "The Phylogenetic relationships of sauropod dinosaurs". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society of London 128(1): 43–103.