Pronunciation: ah-dee-o-pah-po-sor-us
Meaning: Far-eating lizard
Author/s: Martínez (2009)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: San Juan, Argentina
Discovery Chart Position: #671
Adeopapposaurus mognai
South America's Adeopapposaurus is very similar to South Africa's Massospondylus, so much so that when its remains were first described in 1999, that's exactly where they were assigned¹. A decade later, Ricardo Martínez revisited its fossils and noticed things he hadn't before, like weird features of the jaw and an extra neck vertebra, and realised he had a new dinosaur on his hands. New features or not, Adeopapposaurus is still closely related to Massospondylus and therefore a member of Massospondylidae: a family of basal sauropodomorphs (aka prosauropods) that palaeontologists had long suspected of omnivory or even carnivory.
Scrutiny of its snout-end revealed an "overbite", meaning its lower jaw was shorter than its upper jaw, and it sported a series of bony ridges and hollows which could be interpreted as anchor points for fleshy lips if dinosaurs were well endowed in the facial muscle department. But we don't know if they were. Overbites are not uncommon in the animal kingdom, especially among birds of prey whose upper jaw is tipped with a hook-over beak that won't allow the lower jaw to extend further. So it's likely that the snout of Adeopapposaurus anchored a beak too, but it was wide and bill-like for snipping vegetation rather than sharp and pointy for tearing at flesh.
Scrutiny of its snout-end revealed an "overbite", meaning its lower jaw was shorter than its upper jaw, and it sported a series of bony ridges and hollows which could be interpreted as anchor points for fleshy lips if dinosaurs were well endowed in the facial muscle department. But we don't know if they were. Overbites are not uncommon in the animal kingdom, especially among birds of prey whose upper jaw is tipped with a hook-over beak that won't allow the lower jaw to extend further. So it's likely that the snout of Adeopapposaurus anchored a beak too, but it was wide and bill-like for snipping vegetation rather than sharp and pointy for tearing at flesh.
(Far-eating lizard from Mogna)Etymology
Adeopapposaurus is derived from the Latin "adeo" (far) and "pappo" (eating), and the Greek "sauros" (lizard), in reference to a long neck which facilitated the browsing of areas far from its body.
The species epithet, mognai, refers to the Mogna locality where it was found.
Discovery
The remains of Adeopapposaurus were discovered at Sierra de Mogna in the Upper Pelitic Member of the Cañón del Colorado Formation at San Juan Province, Argentina.
The holotype (PVSJ610) includes most of a skeleton from the hips up, including a skull.
