VOLKHEIMERIA
a plant-eating sauropod dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of Argentina.
Pronunciation: VOLK-hie-MEE-ree-uh
Meaning: for Wolfgang Volkheimer
Author/s: Bonaparte (
1979)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Chubut, Argentina
Discovery Chart Position: #272
Volkheimeria chubutensis
(for Volkheimer, from Chubut)Etymology
Volkheimeria is named in honour of Argentine palaeontologist Wolfgang Volkheimer. Several sources claim it's named for the area of Volkheimer or the Volkheimer formation, but there is no such place, as far as we know.
The
species epithet,
chubutensis, is derived from "Chubut" (for Chubut Province)
and the Latin "-ensis" (from, place of origin).
Discovery
The remains of
Volkheimeria were discovered by Jose F. Bonaparte and crew in the Cañadon Asfalto Formation (Sierre de Olte Group) near Cerro Cóndor village, Chubut Province, Argentina, in 1977. Boneparte excavated many dinosaur fossils from Cerro Cóndor between 1976-1985.
The
holotype (PVL 4077) is a partial skeleton, including vertebrae from the neck, back and hips, some pelvic bones, a femur (thigh) and a tibia (shin).
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Early Jurassic
Stage: Toarcian-Aalenian
Age range: 178-174 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 11 meters
Est. max. hip height: 2.5 meters
Est. max. weight: 4.5 tons
Diet: Herbivore
References
• Bonaparte JF (1979) "Dinosaurs: A Jurassic assemblage from Patagonia".
Science, 205(4413): 1377-1379. DOI: 10.1126/science.205.4413.1377.
• Bonaparte JF (1986) "The early radiation and phylogenetic relationships of the Jurassic sauropod dinosaurs, based on vertebral anatomy". Page 247-258 in Padian (ed.) "
The beginning of the age of dinosaurs: faunal change across the Triassic–Jurassic boundary".
• Bonaparte JF (1986) "Les dinosaures (carnosaures, allosauridés, sauropodes, cétiosauridés) du Jurassique moyen de Cerro Cóndor (Chubut, Argentine)" [
The dinosaurs (carnosaurs, allosaurids, sauropods, cetiosaurids) from the Middle Jurassic of Cerro Cóndor (Chubut, Argentine)].
Annales de Paléontologie, 72(4): 325–386. [English translation by Matt Carrano.]
• McIntosh JS (1990) "Sauropoda". Page 345-401 in Weishampel, Dodson and Osmólska (eds.) "
The Dinosauria: First Edition".
• Upchurch P, Barrett PM and Dodson P (2004) "Sauropoda". In Weishampel, Dodson and Osmólska (eds.) "
The Dinosauria: Second Edition".
• Pol D, Garrido A and Cerda IA (2011) "A new sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Jurassic of Patagonia and the origin and evolution of the sauropod-type sacrum".
PLOS ONE, 6(1): e14572. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0014572.
• Cúneo R, Ramezani J, Scasso R, Pol D, Escapa I, Zavattieri AM and Bowring SA (2013) "High-precision U–Pb geochronology and a new chronostratigraphy for the Cañadón Asfalto Basin, Chubut, central Patagonia: Implications for terrestrial faunal and floral evolution in Jurassic".
Gondwana Research, 24(3-4): 1267-1275.
DOI: 10.1016/j.gr.2013.01.010.
• Paul GS (2016) "
The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs: Second Edition".
• Cerda IA, Chinsamy A, Pol D, Apaldetti C, Otero A, Powell JE and Martínez RN (2017) "Novel insight into the origin of the growth dynamics of sauropod dinosaurs".
PLOS ONE, 12(6): e0179707. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0179707.
• Holwerda FM and Pol D (2018) "Phylogenetic analysis of Gondwanan basal eusauropods from the Early-Middle Jurassic of Patagonia, Argentina".
Spanish Journal of Palaeontology, 33(2): 289. DOI: 10.7203/sjp.33.2.13604.
• Pol D, Gomez K, Holwerda FH, Rauhut OWM and Carballido JL (2022) "Sauropods from the Early Jurassic of South America and the Radiation of Eusauropoda". Page 131–163 in Otero, Carballido and Pol (eds.) "
South American Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs. Record, Diversity and Evolution".
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
VOLKHEIMERIA :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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