Gondwanaland:Gondwanaland:
South America in the
Middle to Late Cretaceous
From The Dinosaur Collector
Campanian Masstrictian saw the saltasaurine titianosaurs and large carnotaurine abeilisaurs. It also saw the the first record of hadrosaurs, lambeosaurs and ankylosaurs.
update 9/13/08
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The skull of Carnotaurus is unusual for its deep shape and the horns just above the eyes. If the shape has not been distorted during fossilization then the skull was highly mobile and could gape widely to swallow large objects.
Bullyland Carnotaurus from the Disney series and Saltasaurus from Famemaster.
Saltasaurus, the best known titanosaur, was the first armored sauropod discovered with hundreds of bony studs on its back and sides. It had a flexible tail and may have reared up on its back legs to reach leaves in tall trees. Its broad back, and strong, broad upper tail bones may have enabled the tail to be used as a prop at times. It also had a few bony plates for protection on its back. Carnotaurus had 4 fingers on arms shorter than Tyrannosaurus and that did not bend. We know what the skin looked like from a fossil impressions. Its skin was covered with 4-5 cm (2 in) diameter bumps in rows about 8-10 cm (4 in) apart, becoming larger towards the spine. Each bump was surrounded by 5mm (1/5 in) tubercles. Aucasaurus is similar to Carnotaurus but with a longer skull, lower snout and prominence rather than horns, longer arms, and is 30% smaller overall. Traces of soft tissue are also preserved around its pelvic region. It was found in the same area in which titanosaurid embryos were found.
Carnotaurus from Schleich and the Carnegie Safari Saltasaurus
Finally, from the very end of the Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) there is evidence of smaller and more derived titanosaurids (Saltasaurus, Titanosaurus), well developed abelisaurids (Abelisaurus, Noasaurus) and immigration of North American hadrosaurids, ceratopsians and ankylosaurs.It actually looks like Gondwanaland fauna was expanding into North America and Europe when the extinction event closed out the Mesozoic. Argentina in particular has been producing a lot of new dinosaur finds. These have been over shadowed by the spectacular finds in Asia in the public news. Saltasaurus (Salta reptile) was 39 feet long and from the Late Cretaceous Campanian - Maastrichtian. It was the first armored sauropod found. It is named after Salta in Argentina where it was first found.
Schleich and Carnegie Safari Saltasaurus .
South American dinosaurs have only a limited selection in the toy market. the medium size Carnotaurus is best known because of the Disney Dinosaur movie. The medium size sauropodSaltasaurus have been produced by several lines probably because of their distinctive look. Dinosaur Planet and Chased by Monsters had a selection of potential figures abelisaurs, carchardontosaurs and titianosaurs for future releases.
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