Rhoetosaurus
Rhoetosaurus was a huge, long-necked plant-eater that stomped through ancient Australia. It was one of the biggest and most complete dinosaurs ever found on that continent. This gentle giant lived during the Jurassic Period, when Australia was much farther south and covered in lush forests.2
When did it live?
How big was it?
How long was it?
How tall was it?
at the hips
How heavy was it?
as long as 4 cars parked in a row🍌as long as 94 bananas end to end
as heavy as 1.5 elephants🍉as heavy as 1800 watermelons🎒as heavy as 11 whole school classes of kids🐻❄️as heavy as 20 polar bears🏃could run 100 metres in 24 seconds (the fastest human needs 9.6)How big was Rhoetosaurus compared to YOU?
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How fast was it?
Fun facts
Rhoetosaurus had a surprisingly long neck for a sauropod, thanks to its elongated neck vertebrae.2
Its bones had hollow cavities called pleurocoels, which are an advanced feature not seen in many Jurassic sauropods.2
Rhoetosaurus could walk at a speed of up to 15 km per hour, covering 20 to 30 km in a day.2
It is the only Australian sauropod known from before the Cretaceous Period, making it key to understanding early dinosaur evolution in the region.2
The first fossils were found in 1924 by a station manager named Arthur Browne, who sent them to the Queensland Museum.2
Rhoetosaurus lived in a wet, subtropical forest with tall conifer trees, cycads, and ferns, near a large braided river.2
Its tail may have been short and clubbed, similar to the Chinese sauropod Shunosaurus.2
Most asked questions about Rhoetosaurus
?How big was Rhoetosaurus?
Rhoetosaurus was about 15 metres (49 feet) long and weighed around 9 tonnes (about 9.9 short tons). Some sources say it could reach up to 17 metres long and stand 3 to 4 metres tall at the hip.12
?What did Rhoetosaurus eat?
Rhoetosaurus was a plant-eater (herbivore) that probably ate araucarian conifers, seed ferns, and ferns that grew in its Jurassic forest home.2
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Rhoetosaurus
- Named by
- Longman 19263
- Group
- Long-necks
- Family / clade
- Eusauropoda3
- Classification
- Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda3
- Age of the rocks
- 159 to 158 million years ()3
- Rock formations
- Walloon Coal Measures3
- Countries
- Australia3
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
- Discovery
- Rhoetosaurus was named by Heber Longman in 1926, after fossils were found on Durham Downs station in Queensland. The species name brownei honors Arthur Browne, the station manager who first spotted the bones.2
- Still debated
- Scientists are still debating exactly where Rhoetosaurus fits in the sauropod family tree, because it has a mix of primitive and advanced features.2
Where the facts come from
- Rhoetosaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
- Dinosaurs - Rhoetosaurus brownei - The Australian Museum (australian.museum)
- Rhoetosaurus in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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