ANTARCTOSAURUS
a herbivorous lithostrotian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina.
Pronunciation: ant-ARK-toe-SOR-us
Meaning: Non-northern lizard
Author/s: Huene [1] (
1929)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Rio Negro, Argentina
Discovery Chart Position: #155
Antarctosaurus wichmannianus
Etymology
Antarctosaurus is derived from the Greek "ant" (opposite), "arktos" (north) and "sauros" (lizard) and does not mean "lizard of the Antarctic" as the name may imply. We can't help thinking that von Huene (
1929) should have opted for the vacant "Southern lizard" title to save a lot of confusion (
Austrosaurus wasn't named until four years later).
The
species epithet,
wichmannianus, honors Ricardo Wichmann.
Discovery
The first fossils of
Antarctosaurus were discovered 15km SW of General Roca City in the Anacleto Formation (formerly the Anacleto Member), Rio Colorado Subgroup (formerly the Rio Colorado formation), Neuquen Group, Río Negro, Argentina, by geologist Ricardo Wichmann in 1912.
The
holotype (M.A.C.N. 6.804) is an incomplte skull and partial skeleton which includes bits of ribs, hind and fore limbs, foot and toe bones, a partial hip, shoulder blade, and other bits and bobs.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Campanian
Age range: 83-78 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 18 meters
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: 21 tons
Diet: Herbivore
Antarctosaurus
wichmannianus
Other species
Antarctosaurus giganteus ("Gigantic one"), based on a partial left and right pubis, a partial shin, numerous rib and tail vertebrae fragments, and two gigantic thigh bones from the Plottier Formation of Neuquén Province that Friedrich von Huene named in 1929, cannot be assigned to
Antarctosaurus with any certainty.
"Antarctosaurus" septentrionalis ("the northern one"), named in 1933 by von Huene and Charles Matley for fossils from India, was renamed
Jainosaurus by Hunt, Lockley, Lucas and Meyer in 1994.
"Antarctosaurus" jaxarticus ("of Jaxartes": an ancient name for the Syrdarya River), based on a single femur from Kazakhstan that Anatoly Riabinin named in 1938, is dubious.
"Antarctosaurus" brasiliensis ("from Brasil"), based on two fragmentary limb bones and a partial vertebra that were found in the Bauru Formation in 1970 and described by Fahad Moysés Arid and Luiz Dino Vizotto the following year, is also dubious.
References
• Huene F von (1929) "Los saurisquios y ornitisquios del Cretacéo Argentino".
Anales del Museo de La Plata (series 3) 3: 1-196. [In Spanish]
• Upchurch P, Barrett PM and Dodson P (2004) Chapter Thirteen: "Sauropoda". Page 259-322 in Weishampel, Dodson, and Osmólska (eds.) "
The Dinosauria: Second Edition".
• Dodson P, Britt B, Carpenter K, Forster CA, Gillette DD, Norell MA, Olshevsky G, Parrish MJ and Weishampel DB (1994) "Antarctosaurus". In "
The Age of Dinosaurs".
• Riabinin AN (1938) "Some results of the studies of the Upper Cretaceous dinosaurian fauna from the vicinity of the Station Sary-Agach, south Kazakhstan".
Problems of Paleontology, 4: 130–135.
• Arid FM and Vizotto LD (1971) "
Antarctosaurus brasiliensis, um novo saurópode do Crétaceo superior do sul do Brasil". [Antarctosaurus brasiliensis, a new sauropod from the Upper Cretaceous of southern Brazil].
Anais do XXV Congresso Brasieiro de Geologia 297-305.
• Huene F von and Matley CA (1933) "The Cretaceous Saurischia and Ornithischia of the Central Provinces of India".
Palaeontologica Indica (New Series), Memoirs of the Geological Survey of India, 21(1):1-74.
• Hunt AP, Lockley MG, Lucas SG and Meyer CA (1995) "The global sauropod fossil record".
Aspects of Sauropod Paleobiology. GAIA, 10: 261-279.
• Wilson JA, D'Emic M, Curry Rogers CA, Mohabey DM and Sen S (2009) "
Reassessment of Sauropod Dinosaur Jainosaurus (="Antarctosaurus") septentrionalis from the Upper Cretaceous of India".
Contributions
from the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan, 32(2): 17-40.
• Ariana Paulina Carabajal (2012) "
Neuroanatomy of Titanosaurid Dinosaurs From the Upper Cretaceous of Patagonia, With Comments on Endocranial Variability Within Sauropoda".
The Anatomical Record: Advances in Integrative Anatomy and Evolutionary Biology, 295(12): 2141–2156. DOI: 10.1002/ar.22572.
• Novas F (2009) "
The Age of Dinosaurs in South America".
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"
ANTARCTOSAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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