Re: Pterosaur size (Was: Great in the air, not so good underwater)

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Mike Taylor wrote:

> Don't forget _Puertasaurus reuili_, a truly absurd titanosaur from the
> Maastrichtian of Patagonia:
>
>         Novas, Fernando E., Leonardo Salgado, Jorge Calvo and Federico
>         Agnolin.  2005.  Giant titanosaur (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from
>         the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia.  Rev. Mus. Argentino
>         Cienc. Nat., n.s.  7(1): 37-41.

Yep, it was a whopper all right.  But, based on known specimens, there were 
fewer enormous sauropods at the end of the Cretaceous than at the end of the 
Jurassic.  _Puertasaurus_ was atypically large for a Maastrichtian sauropod. 
 It represented the opposite end of the spectrum to the relatively runty 
saltasaurines.

Gigantic sauropods are known from as early as the Middle Jurassic, such as 
the ichnotaxon _Breviparopus_ and an unnamed sauropod with a femur 2.36 m 
long (Charroud and Fedan, 1992) - if they did not come from one and the same 
species.  In terms of sheer body mass, the heydey of the sauropods seems to 
have been the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous, with most lineages ending 
with a whimper more than a bang.

       Charroud M. and Fedan B. (1992). Données préliminaires sur la 
découverte du gisement de
       Boulahfa à dinosauriens (SW de Boulemane, moyen Atlas central). In: 
Le Maroc, promontoire
       africain entre la méditerranée et l?Atlantique, Livre à la mémoire 
de Georges Choubert, Notes
       Mém. Serv. géol. Maroc 366: 448-449.

Cheers

Tim

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