Author: Carolyn Gramling / Source: Science News for Students
Some early relatives of giant long-necked sauropods may have used an unexpected biological approach to grow to such a large size. This illustration shows how a newly described species, called Ingentia prima, may have looked.
Long-necked sauropods (SAHR-oh-pahdz) are the largest animals known to have walked on Earth. These giant plant-eating dinos include Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus. Their early relatives were big, too. Some, though, may have used a different strategy to get their girth, shows a new study.
Most early sauropod relatives shared a common suite of features. They had sturdy, pillarlike legs. They had elongated necks and forelimbs. And their bones grew continuously rather than in seasonal spurts.
Scientists had considered this an essential blueprint for massive plant-eaters. But at least some ancient giants may have used a different strategy to get so big. That’s the conclusion of a new fossil analysis of sauropodomorphs (SAHR-oh-PAHD-oh-morfz). That group includes sauropods and some of their similarly shaped relatives.Cecilia Apaldetti is a paleontologist. She works at the Universidad Nacional de San Juan in Argentina. She and her colleagues examined fossils of four early sauropodomorphs. One belonged to a newly identified species. The team named it Ingentia prima (Ihn-GEHN-tee-uh PREE-muh). The other three were an already known sauropodomorph called Lessemsaurus sauropoides (Lehs-ehm-SAHR-us sahr-uh-POY-deez). These “Lessemsauridae” (Lehs-ehm-SAHR-ih-day) date to the Late Triassic. That’s between 237 million and 201…
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