Name:
Rapetosaurus (Malagasy and Greek for "mischievous lizard"); pronounced rah-PETE-oh-SORE-us
Habitat:
Plains of northern Africa
Historical Period:
Late Cretaceous (70-65 million years ago)
Size and Weight:
About 50 feet long; weight unknown
Diet:
Plants
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Long neck and tail; small, blunt teeth
About Rapetosaurus:
Toward the end of the Cretaceous period--shortly before the dinosaurs went extinct--the only types of sauropods roaming the earth were titanosaurs, the prime example of which was Titanosaurus. In 2001, a new genus of titanosaur, Rapetosaurus, was unearthed in a dig in Madagascar, a large island off the eastern coast of Africa. Unusually for a sauropod, paleontologists found a near-complete skeleton of a Rapetosaurus juvenile with its head still attached.
Seventy million years ago, when Rapetosaurus lived, Madagascar had only recently separated from continental Africa, so it's likely that this sauropod evolved from African predecessors.
