Europasaurus Reconstruction by Gerhard Boeggemann When: Jurassic (~ 156 - 151 million years ago) Whe

Europasaurus

Reconstruction by Gerhard Boeggemann

When: Jurassic (~ 156 - 151 million years ago)

Where: Germany

What:Europasaurus is the smallest sauropod known. Now remember I said smallest SAUROPOD known, so we are still looking at an animal that was about 20 feet (~6 meters) long. Keep in mind though, this includes the long neck and tail - taking those out of the picture and the animal’s body length was about 6.5 feet (~ 2 meters).  This length, coupled with the shoulder height of Europasaurus ( about 5 feet [~1.5 meters]), gives us a sauropod with a body that was about the size of a modern elephant.  There are a number of proposed tiny sauropods out there, but I have selected Europasaurus as it is known from several almost complete skeletons, from juveniles to adults, so we can be sure this is not just a baby sauropod that would have grown much larger. Above I have included a diagram from the original description of Europasaurus rather than a reconstructed mounted skeleton to show you just how much of the skeleton is known. Why is Europasaurus so small? Its our good friend Island Dwarfism back again! The specimens have been found in Germany, on what would have been one of many islands in the area during the late Jurassic, owing to the higher sea levels. 

This smallest of all sauropods is in the clade  Macranaria within the sauropod family tree. This group actually contains some of the biggest sauropods (and thus dinosuars) ever known! Talk about some size diversity within a group! An adult Europasaurus could have easily walked between the legs of some of its larger cousins. The great range of ages in the recovered specimens of Europasaurushave allowed for detailed study of the microstructure of the bones, revealing how these animals grew. From this study it has been proposed that Europasaurus  managed to stay small on its restricted island habitat by not stopping its growth exceptionally earlier than its relatives, but instead by dramatically slowing down its growth rate. 

I hope this cute little sauropod makes up for ruining all of those childhoods with the reality (or should I say unreality) of Brontosaurus a few posts ago. ;)