Macronaria

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Macronarians Fossil range: Middle Jurassic–Late Cretaceous
Several macronarian sauropods
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Superorder: Dinosauria Order: Saurischia Suborder: Sauropodomorpha Infraorder: Sauropoda (unranked) Macronaria Wilson & Sereno, 1998
Clades
Camarasauridae Titanosauriformes

Macronaria is a clade of sauropod dinosaurs from the Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) to Late Cretaceous Periods of what are now North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. The name means 'large nostrils', in reference to the large nasal openings high on the head that probably supported fleshy resonating chambers. Macronaria consists of two main groups: the family Camarasauridae, and the clade Titanosauriformes. Titanosauriformes in turn contains the brachiosaurids and the titanosaurians and is the one of the largest sauropod groups, which also contains most of the longest, tallest and most massive dinosaurs of all time.

[edit] Systematics

• Macronaria
  • Family Camarasauridae
    • Aragosaurus
    • Camarasaurus
  • Titanosauriformes
    • ?Cedarosaurus
    • ?Huabeisaurus
    • ?Venenosaurus
    • Europasaurus
    • Fusuisaurus
    • Family Brachiosauridae
      • Lusotitan
      • Brachiosaurus
      • Sauroposeidon
    • Somphospondyli
      • Family Euhelopodidae
        • Euhelopus
        • Erketu
      • Titanosauria

[edit] References

• Upchurch, P. (1998). "The Phylogenetic relationships of sauropod dinosaurs". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society of London 128(1): 43–103.