Plateosaurus
Plateosaurus is a prosauropod dinosaur genus. They lived during the Upper Triassic period, around 214 to 294 million years ago in what is now Europe.[1]
| Plateosaurus Temporal range: Upper Triassic
214–204 mya | |
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| Mounted skeleton of Plateosaurus, Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen, Germany | |
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| Genus: | Plateosaurus Meyer, 1837
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They were very common in their day. Over 100 skeletons have been found, some of them nearly complete. Many fossils have come from Swabia, Germany.
Plateosaurus was the first long-necked plant eater in the Triassic. An adult Plateosaurus could weigh up to 1,500 pounds (680 kg) and grow 27 feet (8.2 m) long. They had plump plant-crushing teeth, powerful hind limbs, short but muscular arms and grasping hands with large claws on three fingers. They probably used their sharp thumb claws to defend themselves against predators.[2]
The explanation of the large number of skeletons is that the areas were probably mud-traps.[3]
Plateosaurus Media
Map of important Plateosaurus localities. Red = likely type locality Heroldsberg, black = important sites with many and well-preserved specimens. Other localities in blue.[upper-alpha 1]
Photograph of an articulated skeleton missing the head and tail, seen from above. The animal has the limbs strongly folded in a squatting posture, the arms are spread out with the palms facing up and inward.
Outdated 1912 life restoration by Otto Jaekel showing tripodal pose
Skull cast of P. gracilis
P. engelhardti skull and neck (MB 1927.19.1) previously assigned to P. quenstedti and P. longiceps, at the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin
Restoration of P. trossingensis
Side view of a skull and the anterior part of the neck. The skull is rectangular, nearly three times as long as it was high, with an almost rectangular lateral temporal foramen at the back.
Size comparison of four Plateosaurus specimens representing two species
Mounted P. trossingensis skeleton in Sauriermuseum, Frick
Lateral view drawing of the animal; it is depicted as a biped with grasping hands with palms facing medially. The tail is held high, as is the neck.
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References
- ↑ Weishampel D.B. et al 2004. In Weishampel D.B.; Dodson P. & Osmólska H. (eds.), The Dinosauria. 2 ed, Berkeley: University of California Press, p. 524. ISBN 978-0-520-25408-4
- ↑ Barrett, Paul M. 2000. Prosauropod dinosaurs and iguanas: speculations on the diets of extinct reptiles. In Sues H-D. (ed) Evolution of herbivory in Terrestrial vertebrates: perspectives from the fossil record. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 42–78. ISBN 978-0-521-59449-3
- ↑ Fraas, Eberhard (1913). "Die neuesten Dinosaurierfunde in der schwäbischen Trias" [The latest dinosaur finds in the Swabian Triassic]. Naturwissenschaften (in German). 1 (45): 1097–1100. Bibcode:1913NW......1.1097F. doi:10.1007/BF01493265. S2CID 33390136. [1][dead link]
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