Dino card No. 1056 of 2,027

Limaysaurus

Say it: lee-MAY-sore-us

Name means: “Limay lizard”1 2

Ate: PlantsLong-necksEarly Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous

Limaysaurus was a huge, long-necked plant-eater that stomped through South America about 110 million years ago. It had tall spines on its back and used stones in its belly to help grind up food.1

Lived

113 to 94 million years ago3

Early Cretaceous to Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Neuquén Province, Patagonia, Argentina, and possibly Brazil1 3

Food

Plants1 3

Length

15 m1

estimate

Weight

7 tonnes1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

How heavy was it?

as heavy as 5 cars

as long as 3 cars parked in a rowas long as 83 bananas end to endabout as heavy as an elephantas heavy as 1400 watermelons

How big was Limaysaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Limaysaurus is one of the most complete Cretaceous sauropods ever found in South America, with one skeleton 80% complete.1

Its teeth were curved, unlike the pencil-shaped teeth of Diplodocus.1

The neural spines on its back vertebrae were tall and I-shaped, not V-shaped like some other sauropods.1

Limaysaurus is closely related to Rebbachisaurus from Africa, which suggests a land bridge once connected South America and Africa.1

It lived alongside the giant predator Giganotosaurus and the sauropod Andesaurus.1

The first fossil was found in 1988 by Lieto Tessone, who the species is named after.1

AI-made picture of Limaysaurus — An AI-made picture of how Limaysaurus 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 Limaysaurus

?How big was Limaysaurus?

About 15 metres (49 feet) long and weighed around 7 tonnes. That is roughly as long as a bus and as heavy as a large elephant.1

?Where was Limaysaurus found?

In Argentina, specifically in northwestern Patagonia, about 15 km southwest of Villa El Chocón in Neuquén Province.1

?When did Limaysaurus live?

It lived during the Early Cretaceous Period, about 111 to 106 million years ago.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Limaysaurus
Named by: Salgado et al. 20043
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Rebbachisauridae3
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda > Diplodocoidea3
Age of the rocks: 113 to 94 million years (Albian / Cenomanian)3
Rock formations: Candeleros, Alcântara, Huincul3
Countries: Argentina, Brazil3
Fossil records: 6 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: The first fossils were found in 1988 by Lieto Tessone in Patagonia, Argentina. Scientists originally named it Rebbachisaurus tessonei in 1995, but later gave it its own genus Limaysaurus in 2004.1
Still debated: Scientists still debate the exact age of the rocks where Limaysaurus was found, with estimates ranging from the early Albian to the Cenomanian.1

Where the facts come from

Limaysaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Limaysaurus Salgado, Garrido, Cocca & Cocca, 2004 (gbif.org)
Limaysaurus 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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