Camelotia
Extinct genus of dinosaurs From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Camelotia (meaning "from Camelot") is a genus of sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Late Triassic or Early Jurassic in what is now England.[1][2] Paleontologists are divided on which family it may belong to; in the past, Camelotia has generally been assigned to the prosauropods, but this group of primitive dinosaurs is in constant flux.[1] The genus is now considered a member of the family Melanorosauridae, which includes the first true giant herbivorous dinosaurs.[1][3]
| Camelotia Temporal range: Late Triassic-Early Jurassic, | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Femur | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Family: | †Melanorosauridae |
| Genus: | †Camelotia |
| Species: | †C. borealis |
| Binomial name | |
| †Camelotia borealis Galton, 1985 | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
Discovery and species
The type specimens, syntypes SAM 3449 and SAM 3450, were described and named in 1985 by Galton. They were collected from the Triassic-Jurassic Westbury Formation, dating to the latest Rhaetian-Lowermost Hettangian.[1][4] The fossils includes the specimens "NHMUK PV R2870-R2874", "R2876-R2878" (holotype), with vertebrae, ribs, and parts of the pubis, ischium and hind limb.[5] The type species, C. borealis, was first described by Galton in 1985. Dinosaurs formerly known as Avalonianus and Gresslyosaurus turned out to be Camelotia.[6]
Description
From the fragmentary remains of Camelotia, part of the skeleton can be reconstructed. Camelotia likely had a short neck supporting a fairly large skull with small eyes. Its jaws contained many small-to-medium-sized, serrated, leaf-shaped teeth.[7] Its hands and feet had five digits each; the hands in particular were long and narrow, and bore a large claw.[7] The forelimbs were longer than the hindlimbs, in contrast to the more derived sauropods.[7] It has been calculated around 10 metres (33 ft) long and to have weighed up to 2.5–3.8 metric tons (2.8–4.2 short tons).[8][9]
References
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