Dino card No. 1764 of 2,027

Tehuelchesaurus

Say it: tay-WHEL-chay-SORE-us

Name means: “Tehuelche lizard, named after the Tehuelche people of Argentina”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksLate Jurassic to Early Cretaceous

Tehuelchesaurus was a huge, long-necked plant-eater that lived in what is now Argentina during the Late Jurassic. It had a very long neck and tail, and walked on all four legs like a giant cow.1

Lived

158 to 143 million years ago3

Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous

Fossils found in

Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina1

Food

Plants3

Length

up to 15 m1

estimate

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

How big was it?

How long was it?

as long as 3 cars parked in a rowas long as 83 bananas end to end

How big was Tehuelchesaurus compared to YOU?

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cool stuff

Fun facts

Tehuelchesaurus is known from a skeleton that is about 50% complete, but its skull has never been found.1

Its thigh bone (femur) was 1.53 metres (5.0 feet) long, almost as tall as a grown-up person.1

Scientists found skin impressions on the fossil, which is very rare for sauropods.1

Tehuelchesaurus had deep pits called pseudopleurocoels in its back vertebrae, but no internal air chambers like some other sauropods.1

It was named in 1999 by Rich and colleagues, and the species name benitezii honors Aldo Benitez, who discovered the fossil.1

Some scientists think Tehuelchesaurus was a type of turiasaur, a group of sauropods that lived in Europe and South America.1

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

?How big was Tehuelchesaurus?

It was probably about 15 metres (49 feet) long, based on its bones.1

?What did Tehuelchesaurus eat?

It was a plant-eater, eating leaves and other plants. It had a long neck to reach high vegetation.1

?When did Tehuelchesaurus live?

It lived during the Late Jurassic period, about 160 to 150 million years ago.1

?Where was Tehuelchesaurus found?

It was found in Argentina, in the Chubut Province of Patagonia. The fossil was discovered at Fernandez Estancia.1

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Tehuelchesaurus
Named by: Rich et al. 19993
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Camarasauromorpha3
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda > Macronaria3
Age of the rocks: 158 to 143 million years ()3
Rock formations: Cañadón Calcáreo3
Countries: Argentina3
Fossil records: 1 in the Paleobiology Database3
Discovery: Tehuelchesaurus was named in 1999 by Rich, Vickers-Rich, Gimenez, Cuneo, Puerta and Vacca. The holotype was discovered by Aldo Benitez at Estancia Fernández in Chubut, Argentina.1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if Tehuelchesaurus was a camarasauromorph or a turiasaur, because different studies place it in different groups.1 2

Where the facts come from

Tehuelchesaurus (en.wikipedia.org)
Osteology and phylogenetic relationships of Tehuelchesaurus benitezii (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the Upper Jurassic of Patagonia (ri.conicet.gov.ar)
Tehuelchesaurus 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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