Saltasauridae

Saltasaurids Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 85.8–66 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
Restoration of Saltasaurus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	†Sauropodomorpha
Clade:	†Neosauropoda
Clade:	†Macronaria
Clade:	†Titanosauria
Clade:	†Lithostrotia
Family:	†Saltasauridae Sereno, 1998
Genera
†Alamosaurus †Dongyangosaurus †Jiangshanosaurus †Opisthocoelicaudia †Saltasaurinae

Saltasauridae (named after the Salta region of Argentina where they were first found) — a family of armored herbivorous sauropods from the Upper Cretaceous. They are known from fossils found in South America, Asia, North America, and Europe. They are characterized by their vertebrae and feet, which are similar to those of Saltasaurus, the first of the group to be discovered and the source of the name. The last and largest of the group and only one found in North America, Alamosaurus, was thirty-four meters in length and the last sauropod to go extinct.

Most of the saltasaurids were smaller, around fifteen meters in length, and one, Rocasaurus, was only eight meters long. Like all sauropods, the saltasaurids were quadrupeds, their necks and tails were held almost parallel to the ground, and their small heads had only tiny, peg-like teeth. They were herbivorous, stripping leaves off of plants and digesting them in their enormous guts. Although large animals, they were smaller than other sauropods of their time, and many possessed distinctive additional defenses in the form of scutes along their backs.

As sauropods, the Saltasauridae are herbivorous saurischians with the characteristic body plan of a small head, long neck, four erect legs, and a counterbalancing tail. Most sauropods are from the clade Neosauropoda, which is further split into the narrow-toothed Diplodocoidea and the broad-toothed Macronaria. The Macronarians emerged in the Jurassic and a subclade, the Titanosauria, survived into the Cretaceous and spread across the continents. Because of their diversity, wide distribution, and the fragmentary or incomplete nature of most specimens, little is known about the titanosaurs beyond their size and tendency to have scutes.