''Rhoetosaurus'' (meaning "Rhoetos lizard"), named after

Rhoetus Rhoetus was a character mentioned by Ovid in Book V of his mock-epic ''Metamorphoses''. After Perseus rescues Andromeda (mythology), Andromeda from the sea monster, her betrothed Phineus (son of Belus), Phineus, brother of her father, attacks Per ...

, a titan in

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

, is 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 ...

of sauropod

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

Jurassic The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately 143.1 Mya. ...

( Oxfordian) Walloon Coal Measures of what is now eastern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. ''Rhoetosaurus'' is estimated to have been about long, weighing about .Paul, G.S., 2010, ''The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs'', Princeton University Press p. 173 Subsequent authors have sometimes misspelled the name: ''Rhaetosaurus'' (de Lapparent & Laverat, 1955); ''Rheteosaurus'' (Yadagiri, Prasad & Satsangi, 1979).

Discovery and species

In 1924, Heber Longman, self-trained paleontologist at (and later director of) the Queensland Museum in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

, learned of a large fossil reptile skeleton exposed in the Walloon Coal Measures at Durham Downs near Roma in southern inland

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

. The station manager, Arthur Browne, forwarded fragments of bone to Longman, and was honoured with the dinosaur's specific name ''brownei''. The initial collection was of 22 tail vertebrae, including a series of 16 consecutive bones, and other fragmentary hindlimb pieces. Soon after Longman announced the new discovery, he visited the station and arranged for more material of the same skeleton to be sent to the Queensland Museum. These included additional vertebrae from the thoracic area, bits of rib, more caudals and more of the femur and pelvis as well as a cervical vertebra. Further material was collected by Mary Wade and Alan Bartholomai in 1975, and still more by Drs. Tom Rich, Anne Warren, Zhao Xijin, and Ralph Molnar. By 2012, prepared material comprised 40 vertebrae, five partial thoracic ribs, part of the sacrum, fragments of the ilia, an ischium, the left and right pubic bones, and much of the right hind limb (femur, tibia, fibula, astragalus, and pes). More bones are yet to be removed from rock. ''Rhoetosaurus'' is among the best-known sauropods thus far discovered in

, as well as for the

Gondwana Gondwana ( ; ) was a large landmass, sometimes referred to as a supercontinent. The remnants of Gondwana make up around two-thirds of today's continental area, including South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia (continent), Australia, Zea ...

Relationships

Initially Longman, with advice from leading German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene, noted the primitive nature of ''Rhoetosaurus'', and so for a long time, it was called a cetiosaurid. More recently, others have compared it to '' Shunosaurus'', based on similar general age and several traits of its hind limbs. In a 2012 phylogenetic study, ''Rhoetosaurus'' was found to be a basal sauropod just outside of

Eusauropoda Eusauropoda (meaning "True Lizard Foot") is a derived clade of sauropod dinosaurs. Eusauropods represent the node-based group that includes all descendant sauropods starting with the basal eusauropods of '' Shunosaurus'', and possibly '' Barapas ...

, but the authors noted that support for its position was weak, and that its placement as a eusauropodan could not be rejected, but that it definitely was not a member of Neosauropoda.

References

External links

''Rhoetosaurus''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q333524 Sauropoda Dinosaur genera Oxfordian dinosaurs Taxa named by Albert Heber Longman Fossil taxa described in 1926 Dinosaurs of Australia

Discovery and species

Relationships

References

Further reading

External links