Suuwassea

Suuwassea is a genus of dicraeosaurid sauropod dinosaur found in the Upper Jurassic strata of the Morrison Formation, located in southern Carbon County, Montana, United States. The fossil remains were recovered in a series of expeditions during a period spanning the years 1999 and 2000 and were described by J.D. Harris and Peter Dodson in 2004. They consist of a disarticulated but associated partial skeleton, including partial vertebral series and limb bones.[1]

Suuwassea
Temporal range: Late Jurassic,
Restored skeleton, Paris
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Sauropodomorpha
Clade: Sauropoda
Superfamily: Diplodocoidea
Family: Dicraeosauridae
Genus: Suuwassea
Harris & Dodson, 2004
Species:
S. emilieae
Binomial name
Suuwassea emilieae
Harris & Dodson, 2004

Etymology

Skull

Since the fossil was found in an ancestral territory of the Native American Crow tribe, the etymology of the generic name is derived from a term in their language, suuwassa, “the first thunder heard in spring”. The root suu, meaning “thunder” and wassa, “ancient”, are a nod to the “thunder lizard” moniker often applied to sauropods. The specific descriptor honours the deceased sponsor of the expeditions that recovered the fossil, Emilie deHellebranth (1914–2001).[2]

Description

Fifth and third to first cervical vertebrae

Suuwassea is a dicraeosaurid, estimated to have reached 15 meters (49 ft) in length and 5 metric tons (5.5 short tons) in body mass,[3] characterized by skull and axial skeleton features it shares with Diplodocidae and Dicraeosauridae though it is too primitive to pertain to any of the latter clades. The herbivore differs from dicraeosaurids in the unfused state of the frontal, and from diplodocids in the arrangement of bones around the foramen magnum, though it possesses a greater number of similarities with the latter than with clade Dicraeosauridae.

Classification

Skeletal reconstruction

In the original description, Suuwassea was placed at Flagellicaudata incertae sedis due to the mosaic of primitive and derived characters found in both dicraeosaurids and diplodocids. Later phylogenetic analysis placed it as a member of the diplodocid subfamily Apatosaurinae,[4] but subsequent studies recovered it as a North American member of Dicraeosauridae.[5][6]

A cladogram showing Suuwassea among other Dicraeosauridae, according to Tschopp et al., 2015:[6]

Dicraeosauridae

Dyslocosaurus polyonychius

Suuwassea emilieae

Dystrophaeus viaemalae

Brachytrachelopan mesai

Amargasaurus cazaui

Dicraeosaurus hansemanni

References

  1. Harris, J.D. and Dodson, P. (2004). "A new diplodocoid sauropod dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Montana, USA." Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 49 (2): 197–210.
  2. "Penn Researchers Describe Newly Found Dinosaur of the Montana Coastline".
  3. Paul, Gregory S. (2016). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press. p. 210. ISBN 978-1-78684-190-2. OCLC 985402380.
  4. Lovelace, David M; Hartman, Scott A; Wahl, William R. (2008). "Morphology of a specimen of Supersaurus (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the Morrison Formation of Wyoming, and a re-evaluation of diplodocid phylogeny". Arquivos do Museu Nacional. 65 (4): 527–544.
  5. Whitlock, John A. (2011-04-01). "A phylogenetic analysis of Diplodocoidea (Saurischia: Sauropoda)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 161 (4): 872–915. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2010.00665.x. ISSN 1096-3642.
  6. Tschopp, Emanuel; Mateus, Octávio; Benson, Roger B.J. (2015-04-07). "A specimen-level phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision of Diplodocidae (Dinosauria, Sauropoda)". PeerJ. 3: e857. doi:10.7717/peerj.857. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 4393826. PMID 25870766.


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