Name:
Europasaurus (Greek for "European lizard"); pronounced your-ROPE-ah-SORE-us
Habitat:
Plains of western Europe
Historical Period:
Late Jurassic (155-150 million years ago)
Size and Weight:
About 15 feet long and 3 tons
Diet:
Plants
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Unusually small size for a sauropod; ridge on snout
About Europasaurus:
Just as not all sauropods had long necks (witness the short-necked Brachytrachelopan), not all sauropods were the size of houses. When its numerous fossils were discovered in Germany a few years ago, paleontologists were astonished to learn that Europasaurus wasn't much bigger than a large ox.
Why was Europasaurus so small? We may never know for sure, but analysis has shown that this dinosaur grew more slowly than other sauropods--so an unusually long-lived Europasaurus might have reached a respectable height (though it would still have seemed puny next to a Brachiosaurus). It's clear that Europasaurus evolved from larger sauropod ancestors, so perhaps its small size was an evolutionary adaptation to the limited resources of its ecosystem.
