Dicraeosauridae

Dicraeosauridae is a family of diplodocoid sauropods that are the sister group to Diplodocidae. Dicraeosaurids are a part of the Flagellicaudata, along with Diplodocidae. Dicraeosauridae includes genera such as Amargasaurus, Suuwassea, Dicraeosaurus, and Brachytrachelopan. Definitive genera of this family have been found in North America, Africa, and South America. The Asian taxa Lingwulong and Tharosaurus have been suggested to be dicraeosaurids, but some authors disagree with this classification. Dicraeosaurids were alive from the Early or Middle Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. A few dicraeosaurids survived into the Cretaceous, the youngest of which was Amargasaurus.

Dicraeosauridae

Sainterx · Public Domain · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
dicraeosauridPBDB
Sits inside
FlagellicaudataPBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Sauropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Sauropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Sauropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Sauropoda

Time the record covers

At least 29 million years on record.

The record covers at least 154.8 Mya to 125.77 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 161.5 Mya to 121.4 Mya.

Middle Jurassic — about 0 of 36 occurrencesLate Jurassic — about 28 of 36 occurrencesLate JurassicEarly Cretaceous — about 8 of 36 occurrencesEarly Cretaceous162–161 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences161–160 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences160–158 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences158–157 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences157–155 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences155–154 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences154–153 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences153–151 Mya — about 3 occurrences151–150 Mya — about 3 occurrences150–148 Mya — about 4 occurrences148–147 Mya — about 4 occurrences147–146 Mya — about 4 occurrences146–144 Mya — about 4 occurrences144–143 Mya — about 3 occurrences143–141 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences141–140 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences140–139 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences139–137 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences137–136 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences136–134 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences134–133 Mya — about 1.0 occurrences133–132 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences126–125 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences125–123 Mya — about 1 occurrence123–122 Mya — about 1 occurrence122–121 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences154.8 Mya125.77 Mya162.3 Mya120.6 Mya

36 occurrences of Dicraeosauridae on record, most of them in the Late Jurassic. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

36 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

8 formations

Tendaguru — 9.70°S, 39.23°EMorrison — 45.25°N, 108.75°WMorrison — 38.54°N, 105.22°WMorrison — 44.54°N, 107.78°WMorrison — 45.54°N, 110.62°WMorrison — 43.24°N, 104.29°WMorrison — 46.88°N, 108.87°WMorrison — 40.44°N, 109.30°WMorrison — 38.85°N, 108.48°WLa Amarga — 39.48°S, 70.19°WMulichinco — 38.50°S, 70.26°WKadzi — 16.27°S, 30.80°ECañadón Calcáreo — 43.22°S, 69.10°WBajada Colorada — 39.82°S, 69.67°WKirkwood — 33.75°S, 25.40°E

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The named rock units Dicraeosauridae has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Dicraeosauridae and its relatives

Late Jurassic

Where Dicraeosauridae and its relatives were recorded in the Late Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

101 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 33 sites for Dicraeosauridae, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

21 references

Each of the 36 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 9 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Dicraeosauridae

Credit
Sainterx
Licence
Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Dicraeosauridae was found in Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itFlagellicaudata through timeFormations of the Late JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Huene 1927)