Dino card No. 1012 of 2,027

Laplatasaurus

Say it: lap-LAH-tah-SORE-us

Name means: “La Plata lizard, named after La Plata, Argentina”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksLate Cretaceous

Laplatasaurus was a huge, long-necked plant-eater that lived in South America during the Late Cretaceous. It had a relatively slender build for a sauropod, and some scientists think it may have had bony plates on its back for protection.1

Lived

84 to 72 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Argentina, in the Anacleto Formation of Patagonia1 3

Food

Plants3

Length

18 m1

estimate

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 4 cars parked in a rowas long as 100 bananas end to end

How big was Laplatasaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Laplatasaurus was named in 1927 by Friedrich von Huene, but he did not describe it properly until 1929.1

The only definite fossils of Laplatasaurus are a shin bone (tibia) and a calf bone (fibula) that were chosen as the lectotype in 1979.1 2

Some scientists think Laplatasaurus was closely related to other titanosaurs like Bonitasaura, Futalognkosaurus, and Mendozasaurus.1 2

A dinosaur egg from the same area, once thought to belong to Titanosaurus, might actually have been laid by Laplatasaurus.1

Bony plates called osteoderms have been found with Laplatasaurus fossils, but scientists are not sure if they really belonged to this dinosaur.1

Laplatasaurus lived about 80 to 70 million years ago, during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous.1

AI-made picture of Laplatasaurus — An AI-made picture of how Laplatasaurus might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Laplatasaurus

?How big was Laplatasaurus?

About 18 metres (59 ft) long, making it a rather large sauropod.1

?What did Laplatasaurus eat?

It was a plant-eater, like other sauropods.1

?Did Laplatasaurus have armor?

Some scientists think it may have had bony plates on its back, but the association is uncertain.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Laplatasaurus
Named by: Huene 19273
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Titanosauria3
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda > Titanosauria > Macronaria3
Age of the rocks: 84 to 72 million years (Campanian)3
Rock formations: Anacleto3
Countries: Argentina3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Friedrich von Huene named Laplatasaurus in 1927 based on fossils from Argentina, but he first described it properly in 1929. The fossils were found in three locations in the Anacleto Formation.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure which of the many fossils originally assigned to Laplatasaurus really belong to it. A 2015 study kept only the lectotype shin bones as certain Laplatasaurus, and moved other bones to different dinosaurs.1 2

Where the facts come from

Laplatasaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
REASSESSMENT OF LAPLATASAURUS ARAUKANICUS (SAUROPODA: TITANOSAURIA) FROM THE UPPER CRETACEOUS OF PATAGONIA, ARGENTINA | Ameghiniana (ameghiniana.org.ar)
Laplatasaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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