Open Paleo

Rapetosaurus

Curry Rogers & Forster, 2001 ruh-PAY-too-SOR-uhs /rəˌpeɪtuːˈsɔːrəs/

From Malagasy 'rapeto' (a giant mischievous creature in Malagasy folklore) + Greek 'sauros' (lizard), meaning 'Rapeto lizard'.

72.2–66.0 million years ago Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Rapetosaurus is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur that lived in Madagascar from 70 to 66 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous Period. Only one species, Rapetosaurus krausei, has been identified. Like other sauropods, Rapetosaurus was a quadrupedal herbivore. It is calculated to have reached lengths of 15 m (49 ft) in adulthood.

Diagnosis

  1. Expanded antorbital fenestra extends over tooth row
  2. Preantorbital fenestra positioned posterior to antorbital fenestra
  3. Subnarial foramen anteriorly positioned and dorsoventrally elongate
  4. Jugal process of maxilla posterodorsally elongate and narrow
  5. Frontals with median dome
  6. Quadrate with V-shaped quadratojugal articulation
  7. Gracile cylindrical teeth with high-angle planar wear facets

Species

Rapetosaurus krausei Curry Rogers & Forster, 2001

Type species

Named for David W. Krause, the paleontologist who led the field team that excavated the holotype in Madagascar from 1993 onwards.

Holotype
UA 8698 , Universite d’Antananarivo
Material
Adult skull including right maxilla with eight teeth, left maxilla, right lacrimal, left jugal, right and left nasals, right quadrate, right and left pterygoids, partial basioccipital, right paroccipital process, left dentary with 11 teeth, both angulars, right surangular, and five associated teeth.
Horizon
Anembalemba Member, Maevarano Formation, Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 72.2–66.0 million years ago
Locality
MAD 96-02, Mahajanga, Madagascar

Notable specimens

  • FMNH PR 2209

    Field Museum of Natural History most complete

    A juvenile referred skeleton missing only a few tail vertebrae, described as the most complete titanosaur skeleton ever recovered and the only one with the head still attached to the body. It was recovered in the Mahajanga Basin of northwest Madagascar and published in 2001.

    Curry Rogers & Forster (2001)

  • UA 9998

    Universite d’Antananarivo ontogeny

    A neonatal individual weighing about 40 kilograms and 39 to 77 days old at death, estimated at 3.4 kilograms when it hatched. Its bones indicate precocial development with little to no parental care, and it likely starved to death during a Cretaceous drought.

    Curry Rogers et al. (2016)

References

  1. Curry Rogers, K.; Whitney, M.; D'Emic, M.; Bagley, B. (2016). Precocity in a tiny titanosaur from the Cretaceous of Madagascar. Science 352(6284): 450. doi:10.1126/science.aaf1509 curryrogers2016a
  2. Curry Rogers, K. A.; Forster, C. A. (2001). The last of the dinosaur titans: a new sauropod from Madagascar. Nature 412: 530-534. doi:10.1038/35087566 curryrogers2001a
  3. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the hip height estimate, and the appearance features.

    jones2026b