''Eucamerotus'' (meaning "well-chambered", in reference to the hollows of the vertebrae) was a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

sauropod Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their b ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

from the

Barremian The Barremian is an age in the geologic timescale (or a chronostratigraphic stage) between 125.77 Ma (million years ago) and 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma (Historically, this stage was placed at 129.4 million to approximately 125 million years ago) It is a ...

-age

Lower Cretaceous Lower may refer to: * ''Lower'' (album), 2025 album by Benjamin Booker * Lower (surname) * Lower Township, New Jersey *Lower Receiver (firearms) * Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England See also * Nizhny {{Disambiguation ...

Wessex Formation The Wessex Formation is a fossil-rich England, English geological formation that dates from the Berriasian to Barremian Stage (stratigraphy), stages of the Early Cretaceous. It forms part of the Wealden Group and underlies the younger Vectis Form ...

( Wealden) of the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

History and taxonomy

John Hulke erected the genus in 1872 for " R.2522", a

neural arch Each vertebra (: vertebrae) is an irregular bone with a complex structure composed of bone and some hyaline cartilage, that make up the vertebral column or spine, of vertebrates. The proportions of the vertebrae differ according to their spinal ...

found by William Fox near Brighstone Bay, but provided no species name. He considered the '' Ornithopsis hulkei'' lectotype referable to the genus.Naish, D., and Martill, D.M. (2001). Saurischian dinosaurs 1: Sauropods. In: Martill, D.M., and Naish, D. (eds.). ''Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight''. The Palaeontological Association:London 185-241. He later referred NMHUK R.2522 to ''

Ornithopsis ''Ornithopsis'' (meaning "bird-likeness") is a genus of sauropod dinosaur, from the Early Cretaceous of England and possibly Germany. The type species, which is the only species seen as valid today, is ''O. hulkei,'' which is only known from frag ...

'', synonymizing ''Eucamerotus'' with Seeley's name based on the discovery of additional vertebrae from the Isle of Wight. Later authors treated ''Eucamerotus'' as a synonym of ''

Pelorosaurus ''Pelorosaurus'' ( ; meaning "monstrous lizard") is a genus of Titanosauriformes, titanosauriform sauropod dinosaur. Remains referred to ''Pelorosaurus'' date from the Early Cretaceous period, about 140–125 million years ago, and have been foun ...

''. von Huene, F. (1909). Skizze zu einer Systematik und Stammesgeschichte der Dinosaurier. ''Centralblatt für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie'' 1909:12-22. erman/ref> Romer, A.S. (1956). ''Osteology of the Reptiles''. University of Chicago Press:Chicago 1-772. Steel, R. (1970). Part 14. Saurischia. ''Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie/Encyclopedia of Paleoherpetology''. Part 14. Gustav Fischer Verlag:Stuttgart p. 1-87. William T. Blows resurrected the genus in 1995 as a valid brachiosaurid, added the

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

and added the species epithet ''foxi'', designating the various vertebrae that Hulke (1879, 1880) had referred to ''Ornithopsis'' as

paratype In zoology and botany, a paratype is a specimen of an organism that helps define what the scientific name of a species and other taxon actually represents, but it is not the holotype (and in botany is also neither an isotype (biology), isotype ...

s, while referring additional vertebrae and partial

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of most animals. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is a rigid outer shell that holds up an organism's shape; the endoskeleton, a rigid internal fra ...

MIWG-BP001 to it. This last point has not been generally accepted;Upchurch, P.M., Barrett, P.M., and Dodson, P. (2004). Sauropoda. In: Weishampel, D.B., Dodson, P., and Osmólska, H. (eds.). ''The Dinosauria'' (2nd edition). University of California Press:Berkeley 259-322. unfortunately, this skeleton has never been officially described. Naish and Martill (2001) suggested ''Eucamerotus'' was a dubious brachiosaurid, and did not find Blows' characters convincing. Upchurch ''et al.'' (2004) considered it to be a dubious sauropod. However, a more recent review of Wealden sauropods from England places ''Eucamerotus'' as a valid genus of Titanosauriformes ''incertae sedis''.Upchurch, P., Mannion, P. D. & Barrett, P. M. 2011. Sauropod dinosaurs. In Batten, D. J. (ed.) English Wealden Fossils. The Palaeontological Association (London), pp. 476-525.

Paleobiology

The vertebrae are around twenty centimetres long. If a brachiosaurid, ''Eucamerotus'' may have been around 15 m (49.2 ft) long, small for a sauropod. As any kind of sauropod, it would have been a

quadruped Quadrupedalism is a form of locomotion in which animals have four legs that are used to bear weight and move around. An animal or machine that usually maintains a four-legged posture and moves using all four legs is said to be a quadruped (fr ...

herbivore A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat ...

References

External links

Darren Naish on Wealden sauropod diversity
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1872101 Macronaria Dinosaur genera Barremian dinosaurs Wessex Formation Fossil taxa described in 1872 Taxa named by John Hulke Dinosaurs of the United Kingdom