Paralititan

Paralititan
Classification
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Chordata
Superclass	Tetrapoda
Class	Reptilia
Subclass	Diapsida
Superorder	Dinosauria
Order	Saurischia
Suborder	Sauropodomorpha
Family	???
Genus	Paralititan
1st Species	Paralititan stromeri
Other Attributes
Time Range	99.6-93.5 mya
Location	Egypt
Name Meaning	Tidal giant
Physical Dimensions	26 meters long
Weight	30 tonnes
Diet	Herbivore

Paralititan is a sauropod sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Egypt. It was named in 2001 by Joshua Smith and his associates. It was one of the largest sauropods to have roamed Africa during the Cretaceous, as well as one of few sauropod species to have inhabited mangrove swamps^[1].

Physiology

Paralititan was a large 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. Its body would have been covered in scaly skin.

Diet

Paralititan 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 12 meters in the air without rearing.

Ecology

So far, all we know about Paralititan 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 smaller sauropods. As well as this, it would have traveled in small herds in order to protect juveniles from harm; juveniles and subadults would have fallen prey to predators such as Carcharodontosaurus, while adults were impervious to predation.

In popular culture

Paralititan was featured in the 5th episode of the 2011 documentary Planet Dinosaur, where it is shown as traveling in small herds and drinking from rivers to cool down. A juvenile that strays from the herd gets attacked by a(n inaccurately misplaced) Sarcosuchus, which tussles with a Carcharodontosaurus for rights to the juvenile sauropod and loses; however, just as the Carcharodontosaurus is about to claim its meal, the juvenile sauropod's relatives advance towards it in an attempt to get their offspring back, scaring the theropod off.

References

1. Smith, J. B., Lamanna, M. C., Lacovara, K. J., Dodson, P., Smith, J. R., Poole, J. C., Giegengack, R., & Attia, Y. (2001, June 1). A giant sauropod dinosaur from an Upper Cretaceous MANGROVE deposit in Egypt. Science. https://science.sciencemag.org/content/292/5522/1704.