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Cetiosauridae

Lydekker, 1888 Type genus Cetiosaurus

Its genera lived 184.2–165.3 million years ago Early Jurassic–Middle Jurassic
Early Jurassic and Middle Jurassic stages

Cetiosauridae is a family of basal sauropod dinosaurs from the Jurassic. Traditionally it served as a wastebasket for various unrelated species, and many of the genera once assigned to it are now placed elsewhere among the non-neosauropod eusauropods. In its restricted modern sense it comprises Cetiosaurus from the Middle Jurassic of Britain and Patagosaurus from the late Early to Middle Jurassic of Patagonia, which share the loss of the spinodiapophyseal lamina on the dorsal vertebrae (Holwerda and colleagues, 2021). Its validity and contents remain debated, with earlier analyses instead recovering it as a paraphyletic grade of early sauropods rather than a true clade (Upchurch, 1998; Läng and Mahammed, 2010).

Diagnosis

  1. Loss of the spinodiapophyseal lamina on the dorsal vertebrae
  2. Pyramid-shaped, non-bifid dorsal neural spines
  3. Generalized non-neosauropod eusauropod axial and appendicular morphology

Genera placed directly in Cetiosauridae

  • Cetiosaurus Owen, 1841 Bajocian–Bathonian (170.9–165.3 Ma)United Kingdom
  • Patagosaurus Bonaparte, 1979 Toarcian (184.2–174.7 Ma)Argentina

References

  1. Lydekker, R. (1888). Catalogue of the Fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural History). Part I. British Museum (Natural History), London 1-309.

    Named and diagnosed the family Cetiosauridae (p. 133), illustrating Morosaurus among its members.

    lydekker1888a
  2. Upchurch, P.; Barrett, P. M.; Dodson, P. (2004). Sauropoda. The Dinosauria, Second Edition (Weishampel, D. B.; Dodson, P.; Osmólska, H., eds.) 259-322. University of California Press, Berkeley.

    Defined Cetiosauridae as sauropods closer to Cetiosaurus than to Saltasaurus, and diagnosed it.

    upchurch2004a
  3. Holwerda, F. M.; Rauhut, O. W. M.; Pol, D. (2021). Osteological revision of the holotype of the Middle Jurassic sauropod dinosaur Patagosaurus fariasi Bonaparte, 1979 (Sauropoda, Cetiosauridae). Geodiversitas 43(16): 575-643. doi:10.5252/geodiversitas2021v43a16

    Redescribed the Patagosaurus holotype and interpreted the absence of the spinodiapophyseal lamina as an apomorphy uniting the cetiosaurids.

    holwerda2021a
  4. Upchurch, P. M. (1998). The phylogenetic relationships of sauropod dinosaurs. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 124: 43-103. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.1998.tb00569.x

    Recovered Cetiosauridae, with Patagosaurus, Cetiosaurus and Haplocanthosaurus, as paraphyletic with respect to Neosauropoda.

    upchurch1998a
  5. Läng, É.; Mahammed, F. (2010). New anatomical data and phylogenetic relationships of Chebsaurus algeriensis (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the Middle Jurassic of Algeria. Historical Biology 22(1-3): 142-164. Taylor & Francis. doi:10.1080/08912960903515570

    Recovered Cetiosauridae sensu Bonaparte (1986) as paraphyletic in a restudy of Chebsaurus.

    läng2010a
  6. Bonaparte, J. F. (1986). Les Dinosaures (Carnosaures, Allosaurides, Sauropodes, Cetiosaurides) du Jurassique moyen de Cerro Cóndor (Chubut, Argentine) [The Dinosaurs (Carnosaurs, Allosaurids, Sauropods, Cetiosaurids) of the Middle Jurassic of Cerro Cóndor (Chubut, Argentina)]. Annales de paléontologie 72(4): 325-386.

    Described the Cerro Cóndor sauropods, placing Patagosaurus in Cetiosauridae.

    bonaparte1986b