Abstract
A partial dinosaur skeleton from the Upper Triassic (Norian) sediments of South Africa is described and named Antetonitrus ingenipes. It provides the first informative look at a basal sauropod that was beginning to show adaptations towards graviportal quadrupedalism such as an elongated forelimb, a modified femoral architecture, a shortened metatarsus and a changed distribution of weight across the foot. These adaptations allowed the clade to produce the largest-ever terrestrial animals. However, A. ingenipes lacked specializations of the hand found in more derived sauropods that indicate it retained the ability to grasp. Antetonitrus is older than the recently described Isanosaurus from Thailand and is the oldest known definitive sauropod.
TY - JOUR
T1 - The earliest known sauropod dinosaur and the first steps towards sauropod locomotion.
AU - Yates,Adam M,
AU - Kitching,James W,
PY - 2003/9/11/pubmed
PY - 2003/10/24/medline
PY - 2003/9/11/entrez
SP - 1753
EP - 8
JF - Proceedings. Biological sciences
JO - Proc Biol Sci
VL - 270
IS - 1525
N2 - A partial dinosaur skeleton from the Upper Triassic (Norian) sediments of South Africa is described and named Antetonitrus ingenipes. It provides the first informative look at a basal sauropod that was beginning to show adaptations towards graviportal quadrupedalism such as an elongated forelimb, a modified femoral architecture, a shortened metatarsus and a changed distribution of weight across the foot. These adaptations allowed the clade to produce the largest-ever terrestrial animals. However, A. ingenipes lacked specializations of the hand found in more derived sauropods that indicate it retained the ability to grasp. Antetonitrus is older than the recently described Isanosaurus from Thailand and is the oldest known definitive sauropod.
SN - 0962-8452
UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/12965005/The_earliest_known_sauropod_dinosaur_and_the_first_steps_towards_sauropod_locomotion_
DB - PRIME
DP - Unbound Medicine
ER -
