Amargasaurus

Amargasaurus cazaui

Two parallel rows of tall neural spines running along the neck and back set the sauropod Amargasaurus cazaui apart from all its relatives. Comparatively small at about 10 meters long and near 2,600 kilograms, it was modest in bulk by sauropod standards. The elongated spines may have supported paired skin sails used for display or thermoregulation, or been sheathed in keratin like a battery of horns. A plant-eater, it browsed low vegetation during the Early Cretaceous, roughly 145 to 100 million years ago. Leonardo Salgado and Jose Bonaparte described it in 1991 from the La Amarga Formation of Argentina, and its bizarre neck ornamentation continues to prompt competing functional interpretations.

Amargasaurus was a small sauropod distinguished by two parallel rows of tall neural spines along its neck and back. These may have supported a sail of skin for thermoregulation or display, or may have been sheathed in keratin like horns.

Physical Description

Measurement	Value	Human Scale
Chiều dài	10.0 m	about as long as 2 cars end-to-end
Height	2.5 m	—
Cân nặng	2.6 t	comparable to 2.6 small cars

Diet & Feeding

Herbivore

Amargasaurus was a plant-eating dinosaur. Herbivores typically fed on ferns, cycads, conifers, and other vegetation available during their era. Many herbivorous dinosaurs developed specialized teeth and digestive systems for processing tough plant material.

Time Period

Cretaceous Early Mesozoic Era

Amargasaurus lived during the Cretaceous Early period of the Mesozoic Era, approximately 145,0 to 100,5 million years ago.

The Cretaceous saw continued dinosaur evolution with the rise of ornithopods and early ceratopsians. Flowering plants first appeared and began to transform terrestrial ecosystems. Spinosaurus and other large theropods lived during this time.

Discovery & Naming

Được đặt tên bởi	Leonardo Salgado & Jose Bonaparte
Năm khám phá	1991
Địa điểm khám phá	La Amarga Formation, Argentina

Phân loại

Dinosauria → Saurischia → Sauropodomorpha → Sauropoda → Amargasaurus

Lizard feet

The giant long-necked herbivores, reaching lengths over 30 meters and weights exceeding 70 tonnes. They dominated terrestrial ecosystems for over 100 million years.