Amargasaurus Profile

Amargasaurus Profile Name: Amargasaurus (Greek for La Amarga reptile:); articulated ah-MAR-gah-SORE-us Territory: Woodlands of South America Verifiable Period: Early Cretaceous (130 million years back) Size and Weight: About 30 feet in length and three tons Diet: Plants Recognizing Characteristics: Relatively little size; unmistakable spines lining neck and back About Amargasaurus The greater part of the sauropods of the Mesozoic Era looked essentially like practically every other sauropod-long necks, squat trunks, long tails and elephant-like legs-yet Amargasaurus was the special case that demonstrated the standard. This moderately thin plant-eater (just around 30 feet in length from head to tail and a few tons) had a column of sharp spines covering its neck and back, the main sauropod known to have had such a monumental component. (Valid, the later titanosaurs of the Cretaceous time frame, direct relatives of the sauropods, were secured with scutes and spiked handles, however these were not even close as lavish as those on Amargasaurus.) For what reason did the South American Amargasaurus advance such unmistakable spines? Likewise with also prepared dinosaurs (like the cruised Spinosaurus and Ouranosaurus), there are different prospects: the spines may have assisted with discouraging predators, they may have had a job in temperature guideline (that is, on the off chance that they were secured by a dainty fold of skin equipped for dispersing heat), or, in all likelihood, they may essentially have been an explicitly chosen trademark (Amargasaurus guys with increasingly unmistakable spines being progressively alluring to females during mating season). As unmistakable as it seemed to be, Amargasaurus seems to have been firmly identified with two other uncommon sauropods: Dicraeosaurus, which was additionally outfitted with (a lot shorter) spines radiating from its neck and upper back, and Brachytrachelopan, which was recognized by its bizarrely short neck, most likely a transformative adjustment to the kinds of food accessible in its South American natural surroundings. There are different instances of sauropods adjusting decently fast to the assets of their biological systems. Consider Europasaurus, a smallish plant eater that scarcely gauged a solitary ton since it was limited to an island living space. Shockingly, our insight into Amargasaurus is restricted by the way that just a single fossil example of this dinosaur is known, found in Argentina in 1984 yet just portrayed in 1991 by the noticeable South American scientist Jose F. Bonaparte. (Uncommonly, this example incorporates some portion of Amargasaurus skull, an irregularity since the skulls of sauropods are effortlessly isolates from the remainder of their skeletons in the afterlife). Strangely, a similar campaign liable for the revelation of Amargasaurus additionally uncovered the sort example of Carnotaurus, a short-equipped, meat-eating dinosaur that lived around 50 million years after the fact!