Jobaria

Taxobox
name = "Jobaria"
fossil_range = Early Cretaceous

---

image_width = 200px
image_caption = Mounted cast of a "Jobaria tiguidensis" skeleton at the Australian Museum, Sydney.
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Saurischia
subordo = Sauropodomorpha
infraordo = Sauropoda
unranked_familia = Eusauropoda
genus = "Jobaria"
species = "J. tiguidensis"
binomial = "Jobaria tiguidensis"
binomial_authority = Sereno "et al.", 1999

"Jobaria" was a sauropod dinosaur discovered in the Sahara Desert in 1997, and is one of the most completely known Cretaceous sauropods. It was named after "Jobar", a creature of local legends, and is thought to have been about 18 metres long. It lived in the Early Cretaceous (Aptian or Albian age).

Unusually for its late occurrence, "Jobaria" seems to be a very primitive sauropod. It has been interpreted either as a basal macronarian (Upchurch "et al.", 2004), or as a non-neosauropod eusauropod, basal to the neosauropod clade.

The backbone and tail of "Jobaria" are simple compared to the complex vertebrae and whiplast tail of the older North America sauropods "Diplodocus" and "Apatosaurus". Unlike other Cretaceous sauropods, "Jobaria" had spoon-shaped teeth.

Posture

Paul Sereno concluded, after comparing the ratios of humerus and femur circumferences in "Jobaria" to extant elephants, that "Jobaria" may have been able to rear up on its hind legs [ [http://www.projectexploration.org/jobaria/Rearing6.html Could Sauropods Rear? ] ] . As the weight distribution of "Jobaria" indicates that it was supported by the rear limbs rather than the forelimbs (as in elephants), it has been speculation that as elephants can rear-up, then "Jobaria" would have been able to more easily.

Bibliography

* Sereno, P.C., Beck, A.L., Dutheil, D.B., Larsson, H.C.E., Lyon, G.H., Moussa, B., Sadleir, R.W., Sidor, C.A., Varricchio, D.J., Wilson, G. P. & Wilson, J.A., (1999), Cretaceous Sauropods from the Sahara and the Uneven Rate of Skeletal Evolution Among Dinosaurs, "Science" 286(5443): 1342-1347 (Nov 12 1999)
* Upchurch, P., Barrett, P.M., and Dodson, P. 2004. Sauropoda. In "The Dinosauria", 2nd edition. D. Weishampel, P. Dodson, and H. Osmólska (eds.). University of California Press, Berkeley.
* Fantastic Facts About Dinosaurs (ISBN 0-7525-3166-2)

References

External links

* [http://www.projectexploration.org/jobaria/JobariaHome.html The "Jobaria" web site]
* [http://www.nhm.ac.uk/jdsml/nature-online/dino-directory/detail.dsml?Genus=Jobaria "Jobaria" in the Dino Directory]