Sauropod dinosaur genus from Late Cretaceous Mongolia
Opisthocoelicaudia
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 70 Ma
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Skeleton restoration of Opisthocoelicaudia in the Museum of Evolution of Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Clade:
Dinosauria
Clade:
Saurischia
Clade:
†Sauropodomorpha
Clade:
†Sauropoda
Clade:
†Macronaria
Clade:
†Titanosauria
Family:
†Saltasauridae
Genus:
†Opisthocoelicaudia Borsuk-Białynicka, 1977
Species:
†O. skarzynskii
Binomial name
†Opisthocoelicaudia skarzynskii
Borsuk-Białynicka, 1977
Opisthocoelicaudia/ɒˌpɪsθoʊsɪlɪˈkɔːdiə/ is a genus of sauropod dinosaur of the Late Cretaceous Period discovered in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. The type species is Opisthocoelicaudia skarzynskii. A well-preserved skeleton lacking only the head and neck was unearthed in 1965 by Polish and Mongolian scientists, making Opisthocoelicaudia one of the best known sauropods from the Late Cretaceous. Tooth marks on this skeleton indicate that large carnivorous dinosaurs had fed on the carcass and possibly had carried away the now-missing parts. To date, only two additional, much less complete specimens are known, including part of a shoulder and a fragmentary tail. A relatively small sauropod, Opisthocoelicaudia measured about 11.4–13 m (37–43 ft) in length. Like other sauropods, it would have been characterised by a small head sitting on a very long neck and a barrel shaped trunk carried by four column-like legs. The name Opisthocoelicaudia means "posterior cavity tail", alluding to the unusual, opisthocoel condition of the anterior tail vertebrae that were concave on their posterior sides. This and other skeletal features lead researchers to propose that Opisthocoelicaudia was able to rear on its hindlegs.
Named and described by Polish paleontologist Maria Magdalena Borsuk-Białynicka in 1977, Opisthocoelicaudia was first thought to be a new member of the Camarasauridae, but is currently considered a derived member of the Titanosauria. Its exact relationships within Titanosauria are contentious, but it may have been close to the North American Alamosaurus. All Opisthocoelicaudia fossils stem from the Nemegt Formation. Despite being rich in dinosaur fossils, the only other sauropod from this rock unit is Nemegtosaurus, which is known from a single skull. Since the skull of Opisthocoelicaudia remains unknown, several researchers have suggested that Nemegtosaurus and Opisthocoelicaudia may represent the same species. Sauropod footprints from the Nemegt Formation, which include skin impressions, can probably be referred to either Nemegtosaurus or Opisthocoelicaudia as these are the only known sauropods from this formation.
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Opisthocoelicaudia /ɒˌpɪsθoʊsɪlɪˈkɔːdiə/ is a genus of sauropod dinosaur of the Late Cretaceous Period discovered in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia. The type...
which possess flattened centra. Although differing in centrum shape, Opisthocoelicaudia and Diamantinasaurus are the only titanosaurs to share a ventral keel...
Argentinosaurus to only two ridges, and is fully absent in taxa like Opisthocoelicaudia and Saltasaurus. Both Argentinosaurus and Epachthosaurus bear similar...
the headless skeleton of Opisthocoelicaudia, McIntosh (1990) kept Nemegtosaurus in Diplodocoidea while keeping Opisthocoelicaudia separate from the former...
each sternal plate that was oriented similarly to Dreadnoughtus and Opisthocoelicaudia. The humerus of Patagotitan was on average 28% as broad as it was...
it with Saltasauridae. One major analysis unites Alamosaurus with Opisthocoelicaudia in the subgroup Opisthocoelicaudiinae of Saltasauridae. A major competing...
not Opisthocoelicaudia. The same paleontologists defined Opisthocoelicaudiinae as the inverse: the least-inclusive clade containing Opisthocoelicaudia but...
skull of Nemegtosaurus comes from the same beds as the titanosaur Opisthocoelicaudia, which is known from a skeleton lacking the neck and skull. Originally...
small-to-medium sized; additionally, Diamantinasaurus, Epachthosaurus, and Opisthocoelicaudia approached the size of Igai. Igai was entered into a phylogenetic...
28–47 m (92–154 ft) based on more complete titanosaurs (Saltasaurus, Opisthocoelicaudia and Rapetosaurus), and declined to provide a new weight estimate,...
these characteristics indicate that it was likely closely related to Opisthocoelicaudia. However, it differs from the latter by the flatter bottom articulating...
Nemegtosaurus found in association with the postcranial skeleton Opisthocoelicaudia. In paleoanthropological studies, reconstruction of relationship between...
Opisthocoelicaudiinae by Gonzalez et al. (2009): Alamosaurus and Opisthocoelicaudia (the type genus), a conclusion also found by Díez Díaz et al. (2018)...
Late Cretaceous Mongolian sauropods Nemegtosaurus mongoliensis and Opisthocoelicaudia skarzynskii: Stratigraphic and taxonomic implications". Palaeogeography...
Argentinosaurus to belong to Titanosauridae in an unnamed clade with Opisthocoelicaudia and an indeterminate titanosaur. In 2002, Davide Pisani and colleagues...
hadrosaurids Barsboldia and Saurolophus; titanosaurs Nemegtosaurus and Opisthocoelicaudia; and the apex predator Tarbosaurus. Additional paleofauna includes...
reconstructed the skeletons of Diplodocus, Camarasaurus, and the titanosaur Opisthocoelicaudia, all known from a complete shoulder girdle, with the correct orientation...
considered suggestive of a relationship with the Mongolian titanosaur Opisthocoelicaudia. However, in their overview of Cretaceous sauropod remains from Central...
skeletal reconstructions of the Mongolian dinosaurs Tarbosaurus and Opisthocoelicaudia, based on the most recent scientific knowledge of their anatomy, were...
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