Sauroposeidon
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Sauroposeidon Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, 112 Ma |
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| Size comparison, showing the isolated vertebrae of the holotype specimen in white. Each grid square = 1m | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Neosauropoda |
| Clade: | †Macronaria |
| Genus: |
†Sauroposeidon Wedel, Cifelli & Sanders, 2000 |
| Species: | †S. proteles |
| Binomial name | |
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Sauroposeidon proteles Wedel, Cifelli & Sanders, 2000 |
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| Synonyms | |
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Paluxysaurus jonesi Rose, 2007 |
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Paluxysaurus jonesi Rose, 2007
Sauroposeidon (/ˌsɔːroʊpoʊˈsaɪdən/ SOR-o-po-SY-dən; meaning "earthquake god lizard", after the Greek god Poseidon) is a genus of sauropod dinosaur known from several incomplete specimens including a bone bed and fossilized trackways that have been found in the American states of Oklahoma, Wyoming, and Texas. The fossils were found in rocks dating from near the end of the Early Cretaceous (Aptian–early Albian), a time when sauropod diversity in North America had greatly diminished. It was the last known North American sauropod prior to an absence of the group on the continent of roughly 40 million years that ended with the appearance of Alamosaurus during the Maastrichtian.
While the holotype remains were initially discovered in 1994, due to their unexpected age and unusual size they were initially misclassified as pieces of petrified wood. A more detailed analysis in 1999 revealed their true nature which resulted in a minor media frenzy, and formal publication of the find the following year.
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