Pronunciation: AN-dee-SOR-us
Meaning: Andes lizard
Author/s: Calvo and Bonaparte (1991)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Neuquén, Argentina
Discovery Chart Position: #357
Andesaurus delgadoi
Once upon a time, Andesaurus was huge and so jam-packed with unique features that Calvo and Bonaparte raised a brand new family—Andesauridae—to house it, along with its similarly primitive relatives which now stand at... none. Since it was coined, most of these "unique" features have been found in all manner of dinosaurs, barring the ones that set it apart from a plethora of other South American titanosaurs, so its own family is unwarranted. And its legendary size has tumbled into the realms of mediocrity too.
Once pimped as 100 feet in length and 60 tons in weight, though this was just a figure in a popular dinosaur book rather than a bona fide scientific estimation, Andesaurus was probably less than half that size, based on its known vertebrae which seem to be a bit squished. However, they're in good enough nick to preserve some previously unseen features, and this "lizard from the Andes"—owner of the first titanosaurid sauropod remains to be hauled from the lower levels of the Río Limay Formation—is unique in sporting a horizontal hollow on the side of each tail vertebrae which, themselves, are unusually square when viewed from the side, spines that are more than twice as high as the main body of back vertebra to which they are attached, and a bony ridge on each of its known hand bones.
Once pimped as 100 feet in length and 60 tons in weight, though this was just a figure in a popular dinosaur book rather than a bona fide scientific estimation, Andesaurus was probably less than half that size, based on its known vertebrae which seem to be a bit squished. However, they're in good enough nick to preserve some previously unseen features, and this "lizard from the Andes"—owner of the first titanosaurid sauropod remains to be hauled from the lower levels of the Río Limay Formation—is unique in sporting a horizontal hollow on the side of each tail vertebrae which, themselves, are unusually square when viewed from the side, spines that are more than twice as high as the main body of back vertebra to which they are attached, and a bony ridge on each of its known hand bones.
(Delgado's Andes Lizard)Etymology
Andesaurus is derived from "Andes" (after the Andes Mountains, close to its place of discovery) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard).
The species epithet (or specific name), delgadoi, honours discoverer Alejandro Delgado.
Discovery
The first remains of Andesaurus were discovered at Villa El Chocón in the lower Candeleros Member of the Río Limay Formation (the oldest Formation of the Neuquén Group), Neuquén Province, Argentina, by Alejandro Delgado in 1987. The holotype (MUCPv 132) includes a series of four vertebrae from the lower back, 27 tail vertebrae divided up into two series from separate parts of the tail, elements of the pelvis (a left pubis, ischia, and two hip vertebrae), rib fragments, and an incomplete right humerus and left femur, and a couple of hand bones and chevrons.
