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Mesetasaurus

Say it: meh-SET-ah-SORE-us

Name means: “Meseta de Artigas lizard”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksLate Cretaceous

Mesetasaurus was a long-necked plant-eater that lived in what is now Uruguay. It is known from two well-preserved tail bones that were found in the 1980s. This dinosaur was a type of titanosaur, a group of huge sauropods.1 2

Lived

86 to 72 million years ago4

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Paysandú Department, Uruguay1 2

Food

Plants3

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Mesetasaurus is the second non-bird dinosaur ever described from Uruguay.1

Its fossils were found on a plateau called Meseta de Artigas, which gave the dinosaur its name.1 2

The only known bones are two tail vertebrae, which are very well preserved.1 2

Mesetasaurus belonged to a group called Aeolosaurini, which lived in South America during the Late Cretaceous.1 3

Scientists think Mesetasaurus lived between about 85 and 72 million years ago.3

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

?How big was Mesetasaurus?

Nobody knows for sure. Only two tail bones have been found, so scientists cannot estimate its full size.1

?What did Mesetasaurus eat?

It was a plant eater. As a titanosaurian, it ate plants.1

?When did Mesetasaurus live?

It lived during the Late Cretaceous, probably between about 85 and 72 million years ago.1

?Where was Mesetasaurus found?

Its fossils were found in the Guichón Formation of Paysandú Department, Uruguay.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Mesetasaurus
Named by: Soto Núñez et al. 20264
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Aeolosaurini4
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda > Titanosauria > Macronaria4
Age of the rocks: 86 to 72 million years (Santonian / Campanian)4
Rock formations: Guichón4
Countries: Uruguay4
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Mesetasaurus was named by Matías Soto Núñez and colleagues in 2026. The two tail bones were found in the 1980s in the Guichón Formation of Uruguay.1 2
Still debated: Because only two tail bones have been found, scientists are not sure about the exact size or full appearance of Mesetasaurus.1 2

Where the facts come from

Mesetasaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Manuscript LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:070DE7BE-8486-43F7-930B-8B6B90439258 Genus LSID: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:2AA8934F-021E-46F1-9F98-893629A66E6F Species LSID urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:061C5A20-06A7-4B1A-ADCA-CC472978910C (ameghiniana.org.ar)
PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
Mesetasaurus 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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