Timeline: sauropodomorphs

Sauropods, the epitome of gigantic dinosaurs: these largest (and largest possible) land animals of all time grew to almost 40 meters in length. Such dimensions are extremely rare, just as rare as adult body lengths of less than 10 meters. The classic, popularly known genera lived in the Jurassic period, for example this Brontosaurus with a whip tail. Nowadays, however, the number of described species from the Cretaceous period has more than caught up. It is mainly the titanosaurs that experienced a very successful speciation until the end of the Cretaceous period. The skin bones on their backs were not used for armor, but as an ion storage in order to keep up with the continuous bone regeneration during aging. These bodies pushed the limits of what was possible. In doing so, they essentially followed the same path as other dinosaurs: from small to large, from biped to quadruped, from carnivore to herbivore. In a way, Plateosaurus from the Triassic is a good model for an intermediate stage.

digital painting, 2024

Urweltmuseum GEOSKOP Burg Lichtenberg (Pfalz) / previous version of Plateosaurus for UNESCO Global Geopark Thüringen Inselsberg – Drei Gleichen