What is Turiasauria?

All eusauropods more closely related to Turiasaurus riodevensis than to Saltasaurus loricatus. Turiasauria originates in the Middle Jurassic, with possible roots extending into the Early Jurassic, as a lineage poised just outside the neosauropod ascent yet capable of achieving monumental scale on its own terms. Recent work by Milan and Mateus (2023) describes an Early Jurassic tooth from Denmark bearing the characteristic crown of Turiasauria, potentially pushing their origins back some 17 million years and implying a long, cryptic early history before their skeletal record becomes visible. They are recognised across multiple continents: in Europe with giants such as Turiasaurus, Losillasaurus, and Zby; in North America with Moabosaurus and Mierasaurus; and in Africa with Narindasaurus from Madagascar; complemented by a growing number of turiasaur-like remnants from India, England, and beyond.

Turiasaurians scoff at the extensive air-space invasion that lightens the skeletons of the huge neosauropods, and follow an alternative blueprint for gigantism: huge flaring scapulae, vertebrae constructed as virtually solid supports rather than hollowed beams, and extremely robust limbs carrying bodies that approached the upper limits of eusauropod mass. Their skulls retain archaic proportions — large and boxy, and equipped with unusually broad, heart-shaped teeth. These are animals shaped by density over delicacy, their bodies engineered for structural solidity.

Turiasauria persists into the Early Cretaceous, long after many Jurassic lineages vanish, surviving as relict giants in the forests and floodplains of Laurasia and Gondwana. Although their span across these supercontinents is impressive, turiasaurs never achieve the global spread of neosauropods, yet they showed that immense body size was a destination that multiple sauropod lineages could reach by different anatomical routes.

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