Name:
Opisthocoelicaudia (Greek for "rear-facing tail socket"); pronounced oh-PIS-tho-SEE-lih-CAW-dee-ah
Habitat:
Woodlands of central Asia
Historical Period:
Late Cretaceous (80-65 million years ago)
Size and Weight:
About 40 feet long and 10-15 tons
Diet:
Plants
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Light armor; long neck and tail; oddly shaped tail vertebrae
About Opisthocoelicaudia:
If you've never heard of Opisthocoelicaudia, you can thank the literal-minded paleontologist who named this dinosaur in 1977 after an obscure feature of its tail vertebrae (long story short, the "socket" part of these bones pointed backward, rather than forward as in most sauropods discovered up to that time). Its unpronounceable name aside, Opisthocoelicaudia was a small- to medium-sized, lightly armored titanosaur of late Cretaceous central Asia, which may yet turn out to have been a species of the better-known Nemegtosaurus. As is the case with most sauropods and titanosaurs, no fossil evidence exists of this dinosaur's head.
