Cedarosaurus is a brachiosaurid sauropod sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of the United States of America. It was named in 1999 by Virginia Tidwell and her associates. It was one of the many Early Cretaceous brachiosaurs that roamed North America, as well as one of the larger ones (as Cretaceous brachiosaurs were smaller than their Late Jurassic brethren).
Physiology[]
Cedarosaurus was a sauropod with a bulky, downwards-sloping body, a deep torso, 4 large, erect, pillar-like legs, a moderately long tail, a long neck, and a small head with a large, bony arch above its eyes and just behind its nostrils. Its body would have been covered in scaly skin.
Diet[]
Cedarosaurus was an herbivore, feeding on leaves from large trees. Its peg-like teeth were used to strip branches of their leaves, and its long neck and limbs allowed it to access vegetation some 9 meters in the air without rearing.
Ecology[]
So far, all we know about Cedarosaurus is that its long, upwards-pointing neck allowed it to feed off the treetops without having to rear up, as well as to minimize competition with other Cretaceous herbivores like Iguanacolossus; as well as this, a fossilized individual with stomach contents revealed that it most likely swallowed large stones in order to aid in digestion, similar to what many birds and crocodilians do today.