Sauroposeidon is a sauropod sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of the United States of America. It was named in 2000 by Matthew J. Wedel, Richard L. Ciffeli, and R. Kent Sanders. It was one of the last sauropods to exist during a time where sauropods flourished in North America, and its remains were confused for pieces of petrified wood, before they were finally discovered to be sauropod bones.
Physiology[]
Sauroposeidon 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[]
Sauroposeidon 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 14 meters in the air without rearing.
Ecology[]
So far, all we know about Sauroposeidon 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 or other Cretaceous herbivores like Tenontosaurus. 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 Acrocanthosaurus, while adults were impervious to predation.
In popular culture[]
Sauroposeidon was featured in the 2009 documentary Monsters Resurrected, where it was depicted as being prey for Acrocanthosaurus, no matter what age; on the other hand, it was shown as more than capable of killing the theropod, even toppling one trudging after it with a simple tail slap. It appeared again in another documentary, Clash of the Dinosaurs, where it is far more passive and less defensive, even falling prey to packs of Deinonychus (theropods much smaller than it is).