Volkheimeria

Volkheimeria chubutensis
Temporal range:
Middle Jurassic, 160 Ma
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Sauropodomorpha
Clade: Gravisauria
Clade: Eusauropoda
Genus: Volkheimeria
Bonaparte, 1979
Species:  V. chubutensis
Binomial name
Volkheimeria chubutensis
Bonaparte, 1979

Volkheimeria (meaning "of Volkheimer") was an eusauropod[1] sauropod dinosaur. It lived during the Middle Jurassic, approximately 160 million years ago. Fossils of Volkheimeria have been found in Argentina. The type (and only known) species, V. chubutensis, was described by José Bonaparte in 1979.

Discovery and naming

Volkheimeria was first described in 1979 by Jose Bonaparte. In the paper, Bonaparte also named its type species, V. chubutensis. The only known specimen is from the Callovian to Oxfordian aged Patagonian deposits that also preserved Patagosaurus and Piatnitzkysaurus, both named in the same publication as Volkheimeria. All that is known of the species is some incomplete postcrania, including a mostly complete pelvis and vertebrae. Many features of this scant material can distinguish Volkheimeria especially in the pelvic and vertebral regions.[2]

References

  1. Leonardo Salgado; Rodolfo A. Coria (2005). "Sauropods of Patagonia: systematic update and notes on global sauropod evolution". In Virginia Tidwell, Kenneth Carpenter. Thunder-Lizards: The Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press. p. 495. ISBN 9780253345424.
  2. Bonaparte, J.F. (1979). "Dinosaurs: A Jurassic Assemblage from Patagonia". Science 205 (4413): 1377–1379. doi:10.1126/science.205.4413.1377. JSTOR 1748887. PMID 17732331.


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