[D] Xenoposeidon proneneukos [sG] [T]
Describer
Taylor & Naish, 2007
Time
Cretaceous Early Berriasian Valanginian
Classification
Saurischia Sauropodomorpha Sauropoda
Diet
Herbivore
Fossilsite
Near Hastings, East Sussex, England; probably Ecclesbourne Glen, about 2 km east of Hastings. Hastings Beds Group; probably Berriasian part of the Ashdown Beds Formation. Precise locality and stratigraphic information either has been lost or was never recorded.
Info
Genus - Typespecies
Holotype
BMNH R2095, the Natural History Museum, London. A mid posterior dorsal vertebra consisting of partial centrum and neural arch.
Etymology
Greek, xenos, strange or alien, and Poseidon, the god of earthquakes and the sea in Greek mythology, the latter in reference to the sauropod Sauroposeidon Wedel, Cifelli and Sanders, 2000. Latin, pronus, forward sloping, describing the characteristic morphology of the neural arch.
A neosauropod represented by BMNH R2095, a well-preserved partial mid-to-posterior dorsal vertebra from the Berriasian– Valanginian Hastings Beds Group of Ecclesbourne Glen, East Sussex, England. It was briefly described by Lydekker in 1893, but it has subsequently been overlooked. This specimen’s concave cotyle, large lateral pneumatic fossae, complex system of bony laminae and camerate internal structure show that it represents a neosauropod dinosaur.
However, it differs from all other sauropods in the form of its neural arch, which is taller than the centrum, covers the entire dorsal surface of the centrum, has its posterior margin continuous with that of the cotyle, and slopes forward at 35 degrees relative to the vertical. Also unique is a broad, flat area of featureless bone on the lateral face of the arch; the accessory infraparapophyseal and postzygapophyseal laminae which meet in a V; and the asymmetric neural canal, small and round posteriorly but large and teardrop-shaped anteriorly, bounded by arched supporting laminae.
The specimen cannot be referred to any known sauropod genus, and clearly represents a new genus and possibly a new ‘family’. Other sauropod remains from the Hastings Beds Group represent basal Titanosauriformes, Titanosauria and Diplodocidae; X. proneneukos may bring to four the number of sauropod ‘families’ represented in this unit. Sauropods may in general have been much less morphologically conservative than is usually assumed.
Since neurocentral fusion is complete in R2095, it is probably from a mature or nearly mature animal. Nevertheless, size comparisons of R2095 with corresponding vertebrae in the Brachiosaurus brancai holotype HMN SII and Diplodocus carnegii holotype CM 84 suggest a rather small sauropod: perhaps 15 m long and 7600 kg in mass if built like a brachiosaurid, or 20 m and 2800 kg if built like a diplodocid. (Taylor & Naish, 2007)