''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 from the sea monster, her betrothed Phineus, brother of her father, attacks Perseus In Greek mythology, Perseus (Help:IP ...

, a

titan Titan most often refers to: * Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn * Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology Titan or Titans may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities Fictional locations * Titan in fiction, fiction ...

Greek Mythology A major branch of classical mythology, Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of ...

, is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

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 ...

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

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 Mya. The J ...

( Oxfordian)

Walloon Coal Measures The Walloon Coal Measures are a Late Jurassic geologic subgroup in Queensland, Australia. Deposited within the Surat Basin, it is considered Oxfordian to early Tithonian in age based on lead-uranium dating of tuffites within the unit. Descri ...

of what is now eastern Australia. ''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 The Queensland Museum is the state museum of Queensland, dedicated to natural history, cultural heritage, science and human achievement. The museum currently operates from its headquarters and general museum in South Brisbane with specialist m ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, learned of a large fossil reptile skeleton exposed in the

at Durham Downs near

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: Places Australia * Roma, Queensland, a town ** Roma Airport ** Roma Courthouse ** Electoral district of Roma, defunct ** Town of Roma, defunct town, now part of the Maranoa Regional Council * Roma Street, Brisbane, a ...

in southern inland

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

. 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 Mary Wade (17 December 1775 – 17 December 1859) was a British woman and convict who was transported to Australia when she was 13 years old. She was the youngest convict aboard , part of the Second Fleet. Her family grew to include five gene ...

and Alan Bartholomai in 1975, and still more by Drs. Tom Rich, Anne Warren,

Zhao Xijin Zhao Xijin (赵喜进; born c. 1935 died July 21, 2012) was a Chinese paleontologist notable for having named numerous dinosaurs. He was a professor at Beijing's Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology. Biography Zhao Xijin was ...

, and

Ralph Molnar Ralph E. Molnar is a paleontologist who had been Curator of Mammals at the Queensland Museum and more recently associated with the Museum of Northern Arizona. He is also a research associate at the Texas natural Science Centre. He co-authored descr ...

. 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 Australia, as well as for the

Gondwana Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final st ...

Relationships

Initially Longman, with advice from leading German paleontologist

Friedrich von Huene Friedrich von Huene, born Friedrich Richard von Hoinigen, (March 22, 1875 – April 4, 1969) was a German paleontologist who renamed more dinosaurs in the early 20th century than anyone else in Europe. He also made key contributions about v ...

, noted the primitive nature of ''Rhoetosaurus'', and so for a long time, it was called a

cetiosaurid Cetiosauridae is a family of sauropod dinosaurs which was first proposed by Richard Lydekker in 1888. While traditionally a wastebasket taxon containing various unrelated species, some recent studies have found that it may represent a natural cl ...

. More recently, others have compared it to ''

Shunosaurus ''Shunosaurus'', meaning "shu lizard", is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from Late Jurassic ( Oxfordian) beds in Sichuan Province in China, approximately 159±2 million years ago. The name derives from "Shu", an ancient name for the Sichuan ...

'', based on similar general age and several traits of its hind limbs. Given its supposed relationship to ''

'', which had a clubbed tail, ''Rhoetosaurus'' has also been hypothesized to possess something similar. The form of the nearly complete hind foot

at least suggests that lies outside the more derived

Neosauropoda Neosauropoda is a clade within Dinosauria, coined in 1986 by Argentine paleontologist José Bonaparte and currently described as '' Saltasaurus loricatus'', '' Diplodocus longus'', and all animals directly descended from their most recent common ...

, but the material needs further study to determine its precise positioning in sauropod evolution.

References

External links

''Rhoetosaurus''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q333524 Gravisauria Middle Jurassic dinosaurs Dinosaurs of Australia Mesozoic reptiles of Australia Oxfordian life Paleontology in Queensland Fossil taxa described in 1926 Taxa named by Albert Heber Longman Sauropods of Australia

Discovery and species

Relationships

References

Further reading

External links