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,
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| Femur | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Family: | †Melanorosauridae |
| Genus: | †Camelotia |
| Species: | †C. borealis
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| Binomial name | |
| †Camelotia borealis Galton, 1985
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| Synonyms | |
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Discovery and species
editThe 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
editFrom 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
edit- ^ a b c d Galton, P. M. (1985). Notes on the Melanorosauridae, a family of large prosauropod dinosaurs (Saurischia: Sauropodomorpha). Geobios, 18(5), 671-676.
- ^ Galton, P. M. (1998). Saurischian dinosaurs from the Upper Triassic of England: Camelotia (Prosauropoda, Melanorosaridae) and Avalonianus (Theropoda,? Carnosauria). Palaeontographica Abteilung A, 155-172.
- ^ 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.
- ^ Lomax, D. R., & Tamura, N. (2014). Dinosaurs of the British Isles. Manchester: Siri Scientific Press.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b c 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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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
edit- Archives of the dinosaur mailing list Archived 2016-08-06 at the Wayback Machine