AUSTROPOSEIDON
a plant-eating titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Brasil.
Pronunciation: Oss-tro-puh-SIGH-don
Meaning: Southern earth shaker
Author/s: Bandeira
et al. (
2016)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: São Paulo, Brazil
Discovery Chart Position: #932
Austroposeidon magnificus
(Magnificent Southern Earth Shaker)Etymology
Austroposeidon is derived from the Latin "austral" (southern) and "Poseidon" (the Greek God who, in his guise as Enisokhthon ("earth shaker"), was responsible for earthquakes.
The
species epithet,
magnificus, means magnificent, great, elevated, or noble in Latin, in allusion to the large size of the animal.
ZooBank registry:
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:BDD6403B-8AB8-4C7E-B7C2-EBBC400A825A.
Discovery
The remains of
Austroposeidon were discovered in the Presidente Prudente Formation (Bauru Group) at Raposo Tavares road (BR-374) on the outskirts of Presidente Prudente City, southwestern São Paulo State, Brasil, by Llewellyn Ivor Price in 1953. The authors tried and failed to relocate the exact quarry, because the area is urbanised nowadays.
The
holotype (MCT 1628-R) is composed of two incomplete neck vertebrae, one neck rib, one back vertebra, seven fragments of back vertebrae and a fragment of hip vertebra.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Campanian-Maastrichtian
Age range: 84-66 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 25 meters
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: 32 tons
Diet: Herbivore
Austroposeidon
magnificus
References
• Bandeira KLN, Medeiros Simbras F, Batista Machado E, de Almeida Campos D, Oliveira GR and Kellner AWA (2016) A New Giant Titanosauria (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the Late Cretaceous Bauru Group, Brazil.
PLoS ONE, 11(10): e0163373. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0163373
• Brum AS, Bandeira KLN, Sayão JM, Campos DA amd Kellner AWA (2022)
"Microstructure of axial bones of lithostrotian titanosaurs (Neosauropoda: Sauropodomorpha) shows extended fast-growing phase".
Cretaceous Research: 105220.
DOI: 10.1016/j.cretres.2022.105220
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
AUSTROPOSEIDON :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/AUSTROPOSEIDON›. Web access: 07th Mar 2026.
