MICROCOELUS
a dubious small titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina.
Pronunciation: my-kroh-SEE-luss
Meaning: Small hollow
Author/s: Lydekker (
1893)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Neuquén, Argentina
Acta Ordinal: #80
Microcoelus patagonicus
(Patagonian Small Hollow)Etymology
Microcoelus is derived from the greek "mikros" (small) and "koilos" (hollow), in reference to the small cavities (pleurocoels) in its back vertebra.
The
species epithet,
patagonicus (pat-uh-GON-ih-kuss), means "Patagonian" in Latin.
Discovery
The remains of
Microcoelus were discovered in the Bajo de La Carpa Formation (Río Colorado Subgroup, Neuquén Group) at "Sierra Roca", on the right bank of the Río Neuquén, close to the city of Neuquén, Neuquén Province, Argentina, by F. Romero and Santiago Roth between 1887 and 1891.
The
holotype (MLP-Ly 23) is a single back vertebra.
It once owned a referred left upper arm (MLP-Ly 25) too, but that has since been shipped off to
Neuquensaurus australis based on its shape and size.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Santonian
Age range: 86-84 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: ?
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: ?
Diet: Herbivore
References
• Lydekker R (1893) "Contributions to a knowledge of the fossil vertebrates of Argentina. I. — The dinosaurs of Patagonia".
Anales del Museo de La Plata, Paleontología Argentina, 2: 1-16.
• Otero A and Reguero M (2013) "
Dinosaurs (Reptilia, Archosauria) at Museo de La Plata, Argentina: annotated catalogue of the type material and Antarctic specimens".
Palaeontologia Electronica, 16(1): 1-24.
• McIntosh JS (1990) "Sauropoda". In Weishampel, Osmólska, and Dodson (eds.) "
The Dinosauria: First Edition".
• Otero A and Reguero M (2013) "Dinosaurs (Reptilia, Archosauria) at Museo de La Plata, Argentina: annotated catalogue of the type material and Antarctic specimens".
Palaeontologia Electronica, 16(1): 1-24. DOI: 10.26879/352.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
MICROCOELUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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