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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--perhaps an island cut off from the European mainland.
