Venenosaurus

Taxobox
name = "Venenosaurus"
fossil_range = Early Cretaceous
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
classis = Sauropsida
superordo = Dinosauria
ordo = Saurischia
subordo = Sauropodomorpha
infraordo = Sauropoda
unranked_familia = Titanosauriformes
genus = "Venenosaurus"
species = "V. dicrocei"
binomial = "Venenosaurus dicrocei"
binomial_authority = Tidwell "et al", 2001

"Venenosaurus" (pronEng|vɨˌniːnoʊˈsɔrəs ve-NEE-no-SAWR-us - Latin "venenum" meaning "poison" and Greek "sauros" meaning "lizard") named after the Poison Strip Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation in Utah, where the fossils were discovered by a Denver Museum of Natural History volunteer Tony DiCroce in 1998 and described by Tidwell, Carpenter & Meyer 2001. "Venenosaurus" is a relatively small (probably around 10 m (33 ft) long) titanosauriform sauropod, known from an incomplete skeleton of an adult and a juvenile. The holotype is DMNH 40932 Denver Museum of Natural History, including tail vertebrae, left scapula, right radius, left ulna, metacarpals, manus phalanges, right pubis, left and right ischia, metatarsals, chevrons, and ribs, found in the Early Cretaceous (Aptian-Albian) Poison Strip Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation in Grand County, Utah. The tail vertebrae have unique morphologies: the centra of the proximal caudal vertebrae have a slightly convex anterior surface but a flat posterior surface; the middle caudal vertebrae combine forward-leaning neural spines with amphiplatyan (flat-at-both-ends) centra.

Scientific Name: "Venenosaurus dicrocei" (IPA|/dɨˈkroʊsiːaɪ/).