Tataouinea
Tataouinea was a long-necked sauropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Tunisia. It had a very light skeleton with air-filled bones, just like a bird. This dinosaur was one of the most complete skeletons ever found in northern Africa.12
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How tall was it?
at the hips
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Fun facts
Tataouinea had air-filled bones, a feature called pneumatisation, which made its skeleton lighter and stronger.12
Its hip bone, the ischium, had a hole for air sacs, something never seen before in a non-bird dinosaur.2
The left side of its backbone had more air pockets than the right side, showing an uneven pattern of pneumatisation.2
Tataouinea lived in a swampy estuary environment alongside giant crocodile-like animals such as Sarcosuchus and the fish Mawsonia.12
Its tail had a gap in the air pockets from the 7th to the 13th vertebra, then shallow pits appeared again in the 14th to 16th vertebrae.2
The first fossils of Tataouinea were found in 2011 by a geologist, but they were badly damaged by vandals after being taken to a museum.2
Most asked questions about Tataouinea
?How big was Tataouinea?
About 14 metres (46 feet) long and about 2.5 metres (8.2 feet) tall at the hips, based on comparisons with similar sauropods.1
?Did Tataouinea have feathers?
No, Tataouinea was a sauropod dinosaur, and sauropods are not known to have had feathers.1
?What did Tataouinea eat?
As a sauropod, it was a plant-eater, eating leaves and other vegetation.1
?When did Tataouinea live?
It lived during the Early Cretaceous period, about 113 to 100 million years ago.1
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For dino experts
- Scientific name
- Tataouinea
- Named by
- Fanti et al. 20134
- Group
- Long-necks
- Family / clade
- Rebbachisauridae4
- Classification
- Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda > Diplodocoidea4
- Age of the rocks
- 113 to 100 million years (Albian)4
- Rock formations
- Aïn el Guettar4
- Countries
- Tunisia4
- Fossil records
- 1 in the Paleobiology Database4
- Discovery
- The first bones were found in 2011 by Aldo Luigi Bacchetta in Tunisia. Scientists Federico Fanti, Andrea Cau, Mohsen Hassine and Michela Contessi named it Tataouinea hannibalis in 2013.12
- Still debated
- Scientists are still debating exactly which group of rebbachisaurid sauropods Tataouinea belongs to, and whether it is more closely related to African or South American species.32
Where the facts come from
- Tataouinea (en.wikipedia.org)
- New Information on Tataouinea hannibalis from the Early Cretaceous of Tunisia and Implications for the Tempo and Mode of Rebbachisaurid Sauropod Evolution (pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)
- PBDB Taxon (paleobiodb.org)
- Tataouinea in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.
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