Open Paleo

Neosauropoda

Bonaparte, 1986

Its genera lived 184.2–66.0 million years ago Early Jurassic–Late Cretaceous

Neosauropoda is a clade of sauropod dinosaurs that contains the majority of sauropod genera and is divided into two major subgroups, Diplodocoidea and Macronaria. Its members include familiar long-necked giants such as Apatosaurus, Brachiosaurus, and Diplodocus, as well as some of the largest land animals ever to have lived, among them Argentinosaurus, Patagotitan, and Sauroposeidon. Neosauropods arose in the Early Jurassic, quickly becoming the dominant large herbivores, and persisted until the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction; diplodocids and brachiosaurids made up much of the group during the Jurassic before being widely replaced by titanosaurs through the Cretaceous. Like all sauropods they shared the basic body plan of great size, long necks, and columnar legs, but they are set apart by a suite of derived features of the skull, teeth, hand, and hindlimb, including the loss of tooth denticles and a hand reduced to two or fewer wrist bones.

Diagnosis

  1. Tooth crowns lacking marginal denticles
  2. Carpus reduced to two or fewer ossifications
  3. Reduction of the manual phalanges
  4. External nares retracted and dorsally positioned

Clades within Neosauropoda

Genera placed directly in Neosauropoda

  • Bothriospondylus Nomen dubium Owen, 1874 Kimmeridgian (154.8–149.2 Ma)United Kingdomincertae sedisunder dispute
  • Dzharatitanis Averianov & Sues, 2021 Turonian (93.9–89.8 Ma)Uzbekistanincertae sedisunder dispute
  • Haplocanthosaurus Hatcher, 1903 Kimmeridgian–Tithonian (154.8–143.1 Ma)United Statesincertae sedisunder dispute

References

  1. 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.

    Coined the name Neosauropoda.

    bonaparte1986b
  2. Wilson, J. A. (2002). Sauropod dinosaur phylogeny: critique and cladistic analysis. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 136(2): 215-275. doi:10.1046/j.1096-3642.2002.00029.x

    Provided the cladistic diagnosis and synapomorphies of Neosauropoda.

    wilson2002a