Title. Cetiosauriscus means "looks like a cetacean lizard". It comes from the word Cetiosaurus (a better known genus of sauropods), to which it was initially mistakenly assigned. The suffix -iscus indicates "similarity".
🧭 Час існування
Middle Jurassic, approximately 166-164 million years ago.
🌍 Географія знахідок
The remains were found in the UK, in particular in Cambridgeshire. This makes it one of the the first described British sauropods.
📏 Розміри
- Length: about 15 meters
- Weight: approximately 10-12 tons
- Structure: long tail, massive body, powerful legs, very long neck As a typical sauropod, Cetiosauriscus had a large body and a small head adapted to a herbivorous diet.
🦴 Анатомічні особливості
- His the vertebrae were more elegantthan in Cetiosaurus, and had a special shape that allowed it to be considered a separate genus.
- The tail was particularly longwhich could serve as a balance when moving around.
- The front limbs were slightly shorter than the hind limbs, but very strong.
- The skull was not found, so its appearance is being reconstructed from close relatives.
🌿 Спосіб життя і дієта
- Plant-eater - It fed on ferns, horsetails, cattails, and other low-growing Jurassic plants.
- Through huge size had almost no predatory enemies in his adult life.
- Probably lived in herds, which helped to protect them from predators and provided better search for food.
📚 Наукове значення
- For a long time, he was considered a representative of the Cetiosaurusbut in the 1930s it was separated into a separate genus because of its anatomical features.
- The study of its remains helped to better understand the evolution of early European sauropods.
- This is one of the most complete sauropodsfound in the UK.
🏛 Цікаві факти
- It is stored in British Museum of Natural History in London.
- It is often shown in exhibitions as a representative of British dinosaurs.
