Open Paleo

Camarasauromorpha

Salgado et al., 1997

Its genera lived 168.2–66.0 million years ago Middle Jurassic–Late Cretaceous

Camarasauromorpha is a node-based clade of macronarian sauropod dinosaurs comprising the most recent common ancestor of Camarasauridae and Titanosauriformes, together with all of its descendants (Salgado and colleagues, 1997). It may be synonymous with Macronaria (Canudo and colleagues, 2008), and it includes a handful of basal forms, such as Europasaurus, whose finer placement within Macronaria remains unresolved. Fragmentary Middle Jurassic remains from Khadir Island, western India, were once assigned to the clade, but Mannion and Moore (2025) find no neosauropod features in them. Camarasaurus itself is distinguished from Diplodocus by an abbreviated face and large spoon-shaped teeth (Gilmore, 1925).

Diagnosis

  1. Opisthocoelous dorsal vertebral centra
  2. Reduced or absent posterior centroparapophyseal lamina in the middle and posterior dorsal vertebrae
  3. Proximal end of the radius subtriangular in outline
  4. Expanded, plate-like sternal elements

Clades within Camarasauromorpha

Genera placed directly in Camarasauromorpha

  • Europasaurus Sander et al., 2006 Kimmeridgian (154.8–149.2 Ma)Germanyunder dispute

References

  1. Salgado, L.; Coria, R. A.; Calvo, J. O. (1997). Evolution of titanosaurid sauropods. I: phylogenetic analysis based on the postcranial evidence. Ameghiniana 34: 3-32.

    Named Camarasauromorpha as a new taxon, defined as the most recent common ancestor of Camarasauridae and Titanosauriformes and all its descendants, and diagnosed it.

    salgado1997a
  2. Canudo, J. I.; Royo-Torres, R.; Cuenca-Bescós, G. (2008). A new sauropod:Tastavinsaurus sanzi gen. et sp. nov. from the Early Cretaceous (Aptian) of Spain. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 28(3): 712-731. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2008)28[712:anstsg]2.0.co;2

    Noted that Camarasauromorpha may be synonymous with Macronaria.

    canudo2008a
  3. Mannion, P. D.; Moore, A. J. (2025). Critical reappraisal of a putative dicraeosaurid sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of Gondwana and a revised view of diplodocoid evolutionary relationships and biogeography. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 23(1): 2550760. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/14772019.2025.2550760

    Rejected the camarasauromorph assignment of Middle Jurassic sauropod remains from Khadir Island, India.

    mannion2025a
  4. Gilmore, C. W. (1925). A nearly complete articulated skeleton of Camarasaurus, a saurischian dinosaur from the Dinosaur National Monument. Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum 10: 347-384. doi:10.5962/p.217807

    Distinguished the skull of Camarasaurus from that of Diplodocus by its abbreviated face and spoon-shaped teeth.

    gilmore1925a