Zapalasaurus

Zapalasaurus is a genus of dinosaur described by Leonardo Salgado, Ismar de Souza Carvalho and Alberto C. It was named after the city of Zapala. The type species, Zapalasaurus bonapartei, was found in the La Amarga Formation of the Neuquén Basin, Neuquén Province, Argentina. It was a diplodocoid, a long-necked herbivore, and it lived during the Early Cretaceous. The authors conclude from examining the skeleton that "The record of Zapalasaurus bonapartei shows that, at least in the Neuquén Basin, basal diplodocoids were more diverse than previously thought." Zapalasaurus is assumed to have a long neck which would have been developed for feeding adaption, allowing its neck to swing in an arc like shape. This would allow Zapalasaurus to browse a wide variety of plants and greens without having to walk very far.

Zapalasaurus
Temporal range: Barremian-Early Aptian
~130–120 Ma
Scientific classification
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Zapalasaurus

Salgado et al. 2006
Species
  • Z. bonapartei Salgado et al. 2006 (type)

References

  1. Paul C. Sereno; Jeffrey A. Wilson; Lawrence M. Witmer; John A. Whitlock; Abdoulaye Maga; Oumarou Ide; Timothy A. Rowe (2007). "Structural Extremes in a Cretaceous Dinosaur". PLoS ONE. 2 (11): e1230. Bibcode:2007PLoSO...2.1230S. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001230. PMC 2077925. PMID 18030355.
  2. Fidel Torcida Fernández-Baldor; José Ignacio Canudo; Pedro Huerta; Diego Montero; Xabier Pereda Suberbiola & Leonardo Salgado (2011). "Demandasaurus darwini, a new rebbachisaurid sauropod from the Early Cretaceous of the Iberian Peninsula". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica. 56 (3): 535–552. doi:10.4202/app.2010.0003.


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