Name:
Andesaurus (Greek for "Andes lizard"); pronounced AHN-day-SORE-us
Habitat:
Woodlands of South America
Historical Period:
Middle Cretaceous (100-95 million years ago)
Size and Weight:
About 130 feet long; weight unknown
Diet:
Plants
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Long neck and tail; relatively long legs
About Andesaurus:
As is the case with many titanosaurs--the huge, sometimes lightly armored sauropods that dominated the Cretaceous period--all we know of Andesaurus comes from a few fossilized bones, including parts of the backbone and scattered ribs. From these limited remains, though, paleontologists have been able to reproduce (with a high degree of accuracy) what this herbivore must have looked like--and it seems to have been huge enough to rival another South American sauropod, Argentinosaurus (which some paleontologists classify as a "basal," or primitive, titanosaur itself).
