Welcome to Abydosaurus
Name Definition
Abydos (the name for a city along the Nile river where the head of Osiris was buried) lizard
Name Given By
Chure et al., 2010
Location
Cedar Mountain Formation in Utah, U.S
Classification
Dinosauria, Saurischia, Sauropodomorpha, Sauropoda, Brachiosauridae
Size
Approximately 12 meters tall (39.3 ft), 18.3 meters long (60 ft), ~10 - 20 tons
Temporal Range
Albian age of the Early Cretaceous, 104.5 million years ago
Ecological niche
Large herbivore
Species/Sub Species
A. mcintoshi
Diet
Abydosaurus would have stripped off needles from coniferous trees
Introduction
Abydosaurus is a genus of brachiosaurid sauropod that lived in Utah during the Early Cretaceous. Abydosaurus means "Abydos lizard" and is named after Abydos, the Greek name for a city near the Nile river where the head of the Egyptian god Osiris was buried after being cut up by his brother Set. This refers to the holotype of Abydosaurus only consisting of a skull and 4 cervical vertebrae. The specific name honors John S. McIntosh who is a emeritus professor of physics at Wesleyan University, and also honors his contributions to the Dinosaur National Monument and the study of sauropods.
Because of the delicate build of most sauropod skulls, Abydosaurus is rather special for being one of the few known sauropods with a relatively complete skull. Abydosaurus is notable for its rather slender teeth, as the Late Jurassic brachiosaurids are known to have had broader teeth.
Abydosaurus is mostly based on the specimen DINO 16488, which consists of a virtually complete skull and the first four cervical vertebrae. More skulls and postcranial elements have been recovered from the same site, including some fragmentary skulls from 3 more individuals, a partial hip bone and some associated caudal vertebrae, a scapula, a humerus, and some bones from the manus (hand). All these fossils of Abydosaurus were found in a sandstone bed at the bottom of the Mussentuchit Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation in Utah. Some zircons found in the mudstone beneath the sandstone bearing the dinosaur fossils indicate that the age of the sandstone is around 104.46 million years old, give or take 0.95 million years, making it an Albian age fossil bed.
Although Abydosaurus and the closely related Giraffatitan lived 40 million years apart, the skull of these two brachiosaurids are similar with the exception of the narrower and sharper teeth of Abydosaurus as well as the bigger nares of Giraffatitan. Abydosaurus can be differentiated from other brachiosaurids by subtle differences in its skull including the smaller external nares as well as some features in the nasal and maxillary bones, and the relatively narrow teeth compared to the broader teeth of earlier brachiosaurids.
At around 12 meters tall and around 18 meters long, Abydosaurus was comparable in size to some of its earlier relatives and actually makes it one of the larger brachiosaurids compared to some of the smaller genera. In the Mussentuchit Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation, Abydosaurus lived with some nodosaurids such as Animantarx and Cedarpelta, as well as the basal hadrosauromorph Eolambia, an indeterminate sauropod similar to and/or might be Astrodon, Deinonychus sp., the small tyrannosauroid Moros intrepidus, the large neovenatorid Siats meekemorum, as well as the neosuchian crocodyliforms Dakotasuchus and cf. Bernissartia, as well as some lepidosaurs (rhynchocephalians and squamates), turtles, amphibians, fish, and mammals.
Sources:
- https://kidadl.com/dinosaur-facts/abydosaurus-facts
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abydosaurus
- http://www.prehistoric-wildlife.com/species/a/abydosaurus.html