Xenoposeidon

Xenoposeidon Temporal range: Early Cretaceous,140 Ma PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Holotype vertebra in multiple views
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	†Sauropodomorpha
Clade:	†Neosauropoda
Genus:	†Xenoposeidon Taylor & Naish, 2007
Species:	†X. proneneukos
Binomial name
Xenoposeidon proneneukos Taylor & Naish, 2007

Xenoposeidon (meaning "strange or alien Poseidon", in allusion to Sauroposeidon) is a possibly dubious genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of England, living about 140 million years ago. It is known from a single partial vertebra with unusual features, unlike those of other sauropods. This bone was first discovered in the early 1890s but received little attention until it was found by University of Portsmouth student Mike Taylor, who formally described and named it in 2007 with Darren Naish.

Xenoposeidon is based on BMNH R2095, a partial posterior back vertebra. The specimen lacks the anterior face of the centrum and the upper portion of the neural arch. The centrum is estimated at 200 millimetres (7.9 in) long, and the height of the preserved portion of the vertebra is 300 millimetres (11.8 in). The average diameter of the posterior face of the centrum is 165 millimetres (6.50 in), with a concave surface. This concavity is deep enough to suggest that the anterior faces of vertebrae from this part of the dinosaur's spine would have been convex to articulate with such a shape.

The specimen displays several distinguishing characteristics. The base of the neural arch covers the length of the centrum and is continuous with the centrum's posterior face. The neural arch leans anteriorly at 35° and there are broad areas of featureless bone on the lateral surfaces of the arch. The neural canal is large and teardrop-shaped anteriorly but small and circular at its posterior opening. The various bony struts and sheets that make up the arch have a distinctive configuration.