Patagosaurus

Patagosaurus is an extinct genus of eusauropod dinosaur from the middle Toarcian of Patagonia, Argentina. It was first found in deposits of the Cañadón Asfalto Formation, which date to around 178 million years ago. Although originally twelve specimens were assigned to the taxon, at least one of them may belong to a different genus. Patagosaurus probably lived alongside genera such as Piatnitzkysaurus, Condorraptor, and Volkheimeria.

Patagosaurus

ESPEJOS PROYECTO · CC BY-SA 2.0 · 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
Sits inside
CetiosauridaePBDB
Diet
herbivorePBDB, for Sauropoda
Life habit
ground dwelling, gregariousPBDB, for Sauropoda
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Sauropoda
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Sauropoda
Length
18 mWikidata

Time the record covers

At most 15 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 182.9 Mya and 168.6 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Early Jurassic — about 3 of 4 occurrencesEarly JurassicMiddle Jurassic — about 1 of 4 occurrencesMiddle Jurassic183–183 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences183–182 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences182–182 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences182–181 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences181–181 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences181–180 Mya — about 0.5 occurrences180–180 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences180–179 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences179–179 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences179–178 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences178–178 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences178–177 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences177–177 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences177–176 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences176–176 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences176–175 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences175–175 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences175–174 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences174–174 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences174–173 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences173–173 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences173–172 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences172–172 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences172–171 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences171–171 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences171–170 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences170–170 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences170–169 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences169–169 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences169–168 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences183.4 Mya168.1 Mya

4 occurrences of Patagosaurus on record, most of them in the Early 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

4 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

1 formation

Cañadón Asfalto — 43.42°S, 69.16°W

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

Patagosaurus and its relatives

Early Jurassic

Where Patagosaurus and its relatives were recorded in the Early Jurassic.

Found in the same rock

6 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Patagosaurus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

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

3 references

Each of the 4 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. 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 Patagosaurus

Credit
ESPEJOS PROYECTO
Licence
CC BY-SA 2.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan of Patagosaurus was found in MorphoSource and Sketchfab.

Smithsonian Open Access was 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 itCetiosauridae through timeFormations of the Early JurassicThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Bonaparte 1979