Hypselosaurus
Name:
Hypselosaurus
(Highest lizard).
Phonetic: Hip-sel-lo-sore-us.
Named By: Matheron - 1868.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Sauropoda, Titanosauria, Titanosauridae.
Species: H. priscus (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Around 8.2 meters long.
Known locations: France and Spain.
Time period: Maastrichtian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Several incomplete
specimens. Eggs have also been attributed to the genus.
What
information can be garnered about Hypselosaurus is
that it was a medium
sized titanosaur that lived in what is now Western Europe at the end of
the Cretaceous period. Unfortunately it is very difficult to go
beyond this because of the incomplete nature of recovered specimens
(despite the popular image presented in fiction, complete fossil
skeletons of prehistoric animals are the exceptions and not the rule).
One
further area of study regarding Hypselosaurus are
eggs that have been
attributed to this dinosaur. These eggs are roughly spherical and
thirty centimetres across, but one area of puzzlement is that
some have much thinner shells than others. Explanations for this
difference have suggested that the eggs are not all of the same
species, or that the dinosaur that laid them had a dietary deficiency
that meant there was less calcium and other nutrients to use in
eggshell production. Other theories however have propositioned that
the thinner shelled eggs were laid by younger individuals, while the
thicker shelled eggs were laid by older Hypselosaurus.
Further reading
- Notice sur les reptiles
fossiles des d�p�ts fluvio-lacustres cr�tac�s du bassin � lignite de
Fuveau [Notice on the fossil reptiles from the Cretaceous
fluvio-lacustrine deposits of the lignitic Fuveau Basin]. - M�moires de
l'Acad�mie des Sciences, Belles-Lettres, et Arts de Marseille
1868–1869:345-379. - P. Matheron - 1869.
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