Camelotia

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, Rhaetian–Hettangian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
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
Avalonia Walcott, 1889 (preoccupied) Avalonianus? Kuhn, 1961 (chimera)

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

1. Galton, P. M. (1985). Notes on the Melanorosauridae, a family of large prosauropod dinosaurs (Saurischia: Sauropodomorpha). Geobios, 18(5), 671-676.
2. Galton, P. M. (1998). Saurischian dinosaurs from the Upper Triassic of England: Camelotia (Prosauropoda, Melanorosaridae) and Avalonianus (Theropoda,? Carnosauria). Palaeontographica Abteilung A, 155-172.
3. Buffetaut, E., Suteethorn, V., Cuny, G., Tong, H., Le Loeuff, J., Khansubha, S., & Jongautchariyakul, S. (2000). The earliest known sauropod dinosaur. Nature, 407(6800), 72-74.
4. Lomax, D. R., & Tamura, N. (2014). Dinosaurs of the British Isles. Manchester: Siri Scientific Press.
5. STORRS, G. W. (1993). Terrestrial components of the Rhaetian (uppermost Triassic) Westbury Formation of southwestern Britain. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, 3, 447-451.
6. Galton, P. M. (2005). Bones of large dinosaurs (Prosauropoda and Stegosauria) from the Thaetic Bone Bed (Upper Triassic of Aust Cliff, southwest England. Revue de Paléobiologie, 24(1), 51.
7. Redelstorff, R. A. G. N. A., Sander, P. M., & Galtom, P. M. (2013). Unique bone histology in partial large bone shafts from Aust Cliff (England, Upper Triassic): an early independent experiment in gigantism. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.
8. McPhee, Blair W.; Benson, Roger B.J.; Botha-Brink, Jennifer; Bordy, Emese M. & Choiniere, Jonah N. (2018). "A giant dinosaur from the earliest Jurassic of South Africa and the transition to quadrupedality in early sauropodomorphs". Current Biology. 28 (19): 3143–3151.e7. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2018.07.063. PMID 30270189.
9. Paul, Gregory S. (2016). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs. Princeton University Press. p. 191. ISBN 978-1-78684-190-2. OCLC 985402380.

External links

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