Diplodocoidea

Diplodocoidea is a superfamily of sauropod dinosaurs, which included some of the longest animals of all time, including slender giants like Supersaurus, Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, and Amphicoelias. Most had very long necks and long, whip-like tails; however, one family (the dicraeosaurids) are the only known sauropods to have re-evolved a short neck, presumably an adaptation for feeding low to the ground. This adaptation was taken to the extreme in the highly specialized sauropod Brachytrachelopan. A study of snout shape and dental microwear in diplodocoids showed that the square snouts, large proportion of pits, and fine subparallel scratches in Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Nigersaurus, and Rebbachisaurus suggest ground-height nonselective browsing; the narrow snouts of Dicraeosaurus, Suuwassea, and Tornieria and the coarse scratches and gouges on the teeth of Dicraeosaurus suggest mid-height selective browsing in those taxa.[1] This taxon is also noteworthy because diplodocoid sauropods had the highest tooth replacement rates of any vertebrates, as exemplified by Nigersaurus, which had new teeth erupting every 30 days.[2]

Diplodocoidea
Temporal range: Middle JurassicLate Cretaceous, 174–93 Ma
Holotype skeletons of Diplodocus carnegii and Apatosaurus louisae, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Suborder: Sauropodomorpha
Clade: Sauropoda
Clade: Eusauropoda
Clade: Neosauropoda
Superfamily: Diplodocoidea
Marsh, 1884 vide Upchurch, 1995
Type species
Diplodocus longus
Marsh, 1878
Subgroups
Synonyms

Taxonomy

The below taxonomy follows the study of Emanuel Tschopp, Octavio Mateus and Roger Benson, 2015:[3]

The phylogenetics of Diplodocoidea were reviewed in 2015 with a specimen-level phylogenetic analysis, as well as a species-level analysis. Their cladistic analysis is shown below.[3]

Diplodocoidea

Haplocanthosaurus priscus

Diplodocimorpha
Rebbachisauridae

Zapalasaurus bonapartei

Limaysaurinae

Cathartesaura anaerobica

Limaysaurus tessonei

Nigersaurinae

Nigersaurus taqueti

Demandasaurus darwini

Flagellicaudata
Dicraeosauridae

Dyslocosaurus polyonychius

Suuwassea emilieae

Dystrophaeus viaemalae

Brachytrachelopan mesai

Amargasaurus cazaui

Dicraeosaurus hansemanni

Diplodocidae

Amphicoelias altus

Apatosaurinae

?Apatosaurinae gen. et sp. nov.

Apatosaurus ajax

Apatosaurus louisae

Brontosaurus excelsus

Brontosaurus yahnahpin

Brontosaurus parvus

Diplodocinae

?Diplodocinae gen. et sp. nov.

Tornieria africana

Supersaurus lourinhanensis

Supersaurus vivianae

Leinkupal laticauda

Galeamopus hayi

Diplodocus carnegiei

Diplodocus hallorum

Kaatedocus siberi

Barosaurus lentus

References

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