Early Cretacceous Fauna Frame Master Kaiyodo UHA UKRD Schleich Sauroposeidon Acrocanthosaurus Astrodon

The Early Cretaceous of North America
can be divided into three faunal zones. An Acrocanthosaurus Astrodon Zone descended from the Late Jurassic fauna contained broken forests and grasslands existed along the Gulf Coast to Maryland. updated 5/15/05

Giants rivaling the size of the Late Jurassic predecessors like the Sauroposeidon also continued to exist.

Sauroposeidon lived about 110 million years ago and probably inhabited a swampy river delta. The Gulf of Mexico had swamped most of Texas, bringing the shoreline to Oklahoma. The neck is about a third longer than that of Brachiosaurus, at 60 feet, tall and weighing around 60 tons.

The sauropods continued to dominate in the Southeast coast and Mexico. A remnant of the long bodied boom feeding diplodocids may have held out in Mexico but short bodied, long necked high browsers were now the favored body style for Cretaceous sauropods. Astrodon (also known as Pleurocoelus) appears to be a medium sized brachiosaur (or possibly a titanosaur). Astrodon was a smaller relative of the Jurassic Brachiosaurus and about 30 feet tall weighing 20 tons. Besides being smaller it also seems to have lost the toe claw of brachiosaurs. Fossils of related forms have been identified in England and Madagascar. Acrocanthosaurus (high spine lizard) was the large predator, 30 - 40 feet long, for this period. Almost as large as the later Tyrannosaurus but related to the Jurassic Allosaurus and African Carcharodontosaurus. It was characterized by long vertebrae that probably supported a hump.

Left is the Safari Acrocanthosaurus with a Larmie Brachiosaurus. To the right a Bullyland Brachiosaurus and the Battat Acrocanthosaurus.

The Paluxy River fossil foot prints in Texas may show a large therapod stalking a a line of sauropods and part of a attack. The best guess is that the theropod was Acrocanthosaurus and the sauropods were Astrodon (Star Tooth) or Pleurocoelus. The Acro seems to have followed the Astrodon, speed up then it hopped on to the animals flank. The tracks have been interpreted to show the Acro was dragged on one foot by the Astrodon before being shook lose. If true it shows sauropods could be attacked even by solitaire predators. Perhaps the Acro was able to follow the wounded animals until it died. On the other had it may just be the record of a failed attack. Modern mammals often make several unsuccessful attacks for each successful kill.

UHA Kaiyodo series Acrocanthosaurus, UKRD Brachiosaurus and FameMaster 4D Brachiosaurus

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hadrosaurus zone

Deinoychus zone

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