Rapetosaurus

Rapetosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur. It lived in what is now Madagascar from 70 to 66 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period. Only one species, Rapetosaurus krausei, has been found. Like other sauropods, Rapetosaurus was a quadrupedal herbivore.

Rapetosaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 70–66 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Juvenile skeleton, Field Museum of Natural History
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	†Sauropodomorpha
Clade:	†Sauropoda
Clade:	†Titanosauria
Clade:	†Lithostrotia
Family:	†Saltasauridae
Subfamily:	†Saltasaurinae
Genus:	†Rapetosaurus Curry Rogers & Forster, 2001
Species:	†R. krausei
Binomial name
Rapetosaurus krausei Curry Rogers & Forster, 2001

Cast skull, Royal Ontario Museum

The discovery of Rapetosaurus was the first time a titanosaur had been recovered with an almost perfectly intact skeleton, complete with skull. It has helped to clarify some difficult issues in this large group of sauropod dinosaurs. It provides a baseline for the reconstruction of other titanosaurs that are known only from partial remains.

By the early part of the Upper Cretaceous all sauropods, except the titanosaurs, were extinct. The titanosaurs were the dominant herbivores of the Upper Cretaceous on the southern continents which made up Gondwana. Their reign was cut short by the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.

Juvenile

The specimen discovered was a juvenile. It is 8 metres (26 ft) from head to tail, and "probably weighed about as much as an elephant", according to Kristina Curry Rogers. An adult would have been about twice as long (15 metres (49 ft) in length), which is still less than half the length of its gigantic kin, like Argentinosaurus and Paralititan.