Dino card No. 1564 of 2,027

Rukwatitan

Say it: ROOK-wah-TIE-tan

Name means: “Rukwa giant, twice buried”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksLate Cretaceous

Rukwatitan was a long-necked dinosaur that lived in what is now Tanzania. It was a titanosaur, a type of sauropod, and it was about as long as a school bus. Its name means 'twice buried' because its bones were buried, then moved by a river and buried again.2 1

Lived

100 to 72 million years ago3

Late Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Southwestern Tanzania, Galula Formation, Rukwa Rift Basin3 1

Food

Plants3

Length

up to 9.1 m2

estimate from head to tail

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 2 cars parked in a rowas long as 51 bananas end to end

How big was Rukwatitan compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Rukwatitan's name includes 'bisepultus', which means 'twice buried' because part of its skeleton was first buried in mud, then washed away and reburied by a river.1

It lived about 100 million years ago, during the middle Cretaceous period.2

Its upper arm bone (humerus) had a square cross-section, which is unusual for sauropods.1

Rukwatitan shared its home with a crocodile-like reptile called Rukwasuchus, whose fossils were found at the same site.1

It was a basal (early) titanosaur, meaning it belonged to the group that later included the largest dinosaurs ever.1

The neck vertebrae of Rukwatitan had undivided air pockets (pleurocoels), which helped lighten its skeleton.1

Rukwatitan was about 9 meters (30 feet) long, roughly the length of a school bus.2

AI-made picture of Rukwatitan — An AI-made picture of how Rukwatitan 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.

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Rukwatitan
Named by: Gorscak et al. 20143
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Rinconsauria3
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda > Titanosauria > Macronaria3
Age of the rocks: 100 to 72 million years (Cenomanian / Campanian)3
Rock formations: Galula3
Countries: Tanzania3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Rukwatitan was discovered by Joseph J.W. Sertich on June 9, 2007, in southwestern Tanzania. It was named and described by Eric Gorscak and colleagues in 2014.1
Still debated: Scientists are still debating exactly where Rukwatitan fits in the titanosaur family tree. Some studies place it as a non-lithostrotian titanosaur, while others group it with rinconsaurs.3 1

Where the facts come from

UJVP_A_845568_O (people.ohio.edu)
Rukwatitan (en.wikipedia.org)
Rukwatitan 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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