Adding More to the Long History

©Luiz Fernando

This week we are literally adding a longer entry into the annals of Dinosaur of the Week. There are a lot of sauropod remains in the fossil record and we have discussed many of those remains (honestly, we have gotten to the point that some of the dinosaurs we discuss have very little material actually being discovered. Amazonsaurus maranhensis is one of the few sauropods remaining that we have not discussed that has an appreciable amount of fossil material attributed to it. The vertebral column of the back and tail are fragmentary but more intact than the pelvis. The number of elements is small, but attributable to a sauropod and the only dinosaur material discovered in the state of Maranhão in northern Brazil identifiable to a genus or species.  Two unidentifiable theropods, an unidentifiable sauropod, and Amazonsaurus are known from the Itapecuru formation in Maranhão. Not much is known about the dinosaur, but it has been assigned to a group of diplodocid sauropods from the Cretaceous known as Rebbachisaurid.