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Saltasaurus

Saltasaurus

Pronunciation:: salt-a-sore-us
Name meaning:: 'Salta lizard'

Saltasaurus

sauropod silhouette

Type of dinosaur:: sauropod
Length:: 12.0m

Diet:: herbivorous
When it lived:: Late Cretaceous, 70-65 million years ago
Found in:: Argentina

Fossils have been found showing that Saltasaurus had small bony nodules embedded in its skin, finally confirming that one a least one group of sauropods, called titanosaurs, had armour plates.

Saltasaurus is one of the last sauropods, living just before the group's extinction.

Taxonomic details

Taxonomy:: Dinosauria, Saurischia, Sauropodomorpha, Sauropoda, Eusauropoda, Neosauropoda, Macronaria, Camarasauromorpha, Titanosauriformes, Titanosauria, Lithostrotia, Saltasauridae
Named by:: Bonaparte and Powell (1980)
Type species:: loricatus

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