Venenosaurus
Name:
Venenosaurus(Poison lizard).
Phonetic: Ven-in-o-sore-us.
Named By: Virginia Tidwell, Kenneth Carpenter
& Suzanne Meyer - 2001.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Sauropodomorpha, Sauropoda, Titanosauriformes,
Brachiosauridae.
Species: V. dicrocei (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: About 10 meters long.
Known locations: USA, Utah, Cedar Mountain
Formation, Poison Strip Member.
Time period: Aptian/Albian of the Cretaceous.
Fossil representation: Incomplete post cranial
skeletons of an adult and juvenile.
Venenosaurus,
meaning ‘poison lizard’ acquired its name from being discovered in
the Poison Strip Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation, while the
type species, V. dicrocei, is in honour of
Tony DiCroce, the
person who first discovered the remains. Other sauropod
dinosaurs
from the Cedar Mountain Formation, albeit from different Members,
include Abydosaurus,
Cedarosaurus
and Brontomerus.
Out of these,
Cedarosaurus seems to be the most similar to Venenosaurus.
Venenosaurus
was a typical brachiosaurid sauropod which may have spent most of its
time browsing upon high growing vegetation. The authors of the
2001 description of Venenosaurus however noted
that while appearing
robust, the radius (one of the lower fore arm bones) was
surprisingly slender for its type of sauropod. Out of the Cedar
Mountain Formation, only Cedarosaurus is known to
have more gracile
lower fore leg bones than Venenosaurus.
Aside
from sauropods, Venenosaurus would have likely
shared its
environment with ornithopod dinosaurs such as Planicoxa,
also known
from the Poison Strip Member. It should also be remembered that the
Poison Strip member is sandwiched between the Yellow Cat and Ruby Ranch
Members of the Cedar Mountain Formation, and these also contain
armoured nodosaur
dinosaurs like Gastonia.
So, it’s probable that
they were also around in the time that the Poison Strip Member was
laid, but if they were preserved is a different matter.
Possible
predators of Venenosaurus might have been large dromaeosaurid
dinosaurs
like Utahraptor.
Although
Utahraptor
remains from the Poison Strip
Member have been considered to be indeterminate, definite Utahraptor
remains are known from the Yellow Cat Member which lies below the
Poison Strip Member. Indeterminate remains speculated to belong to
the even bigger Acrocanthosaurus
(a carcharodontosaurid
theropod
dinosaur) were recovered from slightly above in the Ruby Ranch
Member. Even if these remains are not Acrocanthosaurus,
the time
and location would still be about right for this genus or a very close
relative of.
Due
to similarities in the vertebrae, Venenosaurus is
considered to be
similar to Aeolosaurus,
Cedarosaurus and
Gondwanatitan.
Further reading
- A new titanosauriform (Sauropoda) from the Poison Strip Member
of the Cedar Mountain Formation (Lower Cretaceous), Utah, V.
Tidwell, K. Carpenter & S. Meyer - 2001.
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