By José Carlos Cortés
Etymology: Reptile from Turia
First Described By: Royo Torres et al., 2006
Classification: Dinosauromorpha, Dinosauriformes, Dracohors, Dinosauria, Saurischia, Eusaurischia, Sauropodomorpha, Bagualosauria, Plateosauria, Massopoda, Sauropodiformes, Anchisauria, Sauropoda, Gravisauria, Eusauropoda, Turiasauria
Status: Extinct
Time and Place: About 146 million years ago, in the Tithonian of the latest Jurassic
Turiasaurus is known from the Villar del Arzobispo Formation of Aragón, Spain
Physical Description: Turiasaurus was a huge, lumpy sort of sauropod, probably reaching between 36 and 39 meters in total length, and weighing up to 48 tonnes. This made it quite huge indeed, and Turiasaurus would have been an unmistakable figure on the European landscape – in fact, it is one of the largest European sauropods ever known. It had a fairly large but short skull, which was extensively distinctive – with a very round upper head and large holes in the skull to help keep it lightweight. The top of the skull sloped down to the tip of the snout, and then the lower jaw was more boxy, as was the back of the head. This lightweight skull was accompanied by small, triangular teeth, clustered very densely in the jaw. This skull was similar in a lot of ways to that of Camarasaurus, indicating that such a high skull is in fact ancestral to the group of more derived sauropods, the Neosauropods, and that things like Diplodocoids with their long, thin skulls, developed that condition independently. As for the rest of the body, it had somewhat longer front limbs than hind limbs, a short tail, and a long neck – in a lot of ways, convergent with the later-derived Macornarians like Camarasaurus and Brachiosaurus. This has always been fascinating to me, because another group of non-Neosauropods, the Mamenchisaurids, were convergent in a lot of ways with the Diplodocoids – indicating that Tall versus Long was a constant ecological battle in sauropods, and in Turiasaurus, Tall won out! Turiasaurus was so huge it was probably entirely scaly; any feathers left would have only been for display, and even that seems unlikely.
By Matt Martyniuk, CC BY-SA 4.0
Diet: Turiasaurus would have been a high-level browser, able to reach foliage up to six meters tall. It would have then browsed generally on whatever plant material it could get too!
Behavior: Turiasaurus would have had to have spent most of its time foraging on the treetops, getting as much food into its very large belly as possible. When not foraging, it would have been on the move, searching for more food! It seems likely that Turaisaurus would have associated with other members of the genus, in order to stay safe – though huge, they weren’t very fast, so numbers would have been useful if nothing else, especially for younger and smaller and unhealthy and old members of the group. It is uncertain how complicated its behavior would have been, or if it took care of its young, though there isn’t evidence that it did not – and young-care is the normal state for Archosaurs.
By Levi Bernardo, CC BY-SA 4.0
Ecosystem: The Villar del Arzobispo Formation was a transitional environment, literally recording the time period when the Jurassic turned into the Cretaceous. This was a coastal floodplain environment, with a variety of muddy and sandy areas, and it was frequently affected by flooding events that would lead to rapid burial of the animals present. There were a wide variety of marine animals here, indicating that Turiasaurus and its neighbors were foraging on the tree line along the coast. This formation was lousy with sauropods and stegosaurs – in addition to Turiasaurus there were the sauropods Losillasaurus and Aragosaurus, the stegosaur Dacentrurus which was very common in the area. There were also large Allosaurid predators, and smaller fluffy Coelurosaurs, though these haven’t been named; in addition, there were turtles and crocodylomorphs present in the area.
Other: Turiasaurus is a fascinating dinosaur mainly because of its evolutionary implications. For a long time, the prevailing opinion about the long-necked (sauropod) dinosaurs was that the Diplodocoids and Macronarians – things like Apatosaurus and Brachiosaurus and the infinite forms of Titanosaurs – essentially replaced earlier forms of Sauropods all over the globe except for maybe East Asia. However, fossils like Turiasaurus show that these earlier derived sauropods (non-Neosauropods) were not only still around by the end of the Jurassic, but successful into the Cretaceous. Turiasaurus and its relatives were found around all over the Northern Hemisphere well into the Cretaceous period, and were clearly able to carve out their own niche alongside other sauropods.
~ By Meig Dickson
Sources under the Cut
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A Dinosaur A Day 