Lessemsaurus
Sauropodomorph dinosaur genus from Late Triassic Argentina
Lessemsaurus is an extinct genus of sauropodiform dinosaur that lived in the Norian-aged (Upper Triassic) Los Colorados Formation of what is now Argentina.
01Naming and description
The type species, L. sauropoides, was formally described by José Fernando Bonaparte in 1999 in honor of Don Lessem, a writer of popular science books. It was found in the Los Colorados Formation of the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin in La Rioja Province, Argentina.
It is part of the La Esquina faunal assemblage, dating to the mid-Norian stage, around 213 million years ago. It is estimated to have reached 10-12 metres (33-39 ft) long and weighed over 7 metric tons (7.7 short tons), possibly up to 8-10 metric tons (8.8-11.0 short tons), in maximum body mass.
02Classification
A cladogram after Pol, Garrido & Cerda, 2011, illustrates a possible placing of Lessemsaurus and Antetonitrus in Sauropodomorpha:
In 2018, Apaldetti et al. recovered it as part of a clade they named Lessemsauridae, after Lessemsaurus. Their cladogram is reproduced below:
The following cladogram shows the position of Lessemsaurus outside of Sauropoda, according to Oliver W. M. Rauhut and colleagues, 2020:
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Lessemsaurus”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Lessemsaurus Senckenberg.jpg by Katharina Surhoff, GFDL 1.2
- Lessemsaurus mount.jpg by Lim Ashley from Singapore, CC BY 2.0
Fathomly is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Wikimedia Foundation. Spotted a problem? Tell us.