Anatomy and systematics of the diplodocoid Amphicoelias altus supports high sauropod dinosaur diversity in the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of the USA.

ABSTRACT: Sauropod dinosaurs were an abundant and diverse component of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of the USA, with 24 currently recognized species. However, some authors consider this high diversity to have been ecologically unviable and the validity of some species has been questioned, with suggestions that they represent growth series (ontogimorphs) of other species. Under this scenario, high sauropod diversity in the Late Jurassic of North America is greatly overestimated. One putative ontogimorph is the enigmatic diplodocoid Amphicoelias altus, which has been suggested to be synonymous with Diplodocus. Given that Amphicoelias was named first, it has priority and thus Diplodocus would become its junior synonym. Here, we provide a detailed re-description of <

SUBMITTER: Mannion PD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8206699 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature