William Atkins
Monday, 31 August 2009 17:49
Science -
Biology
Page 2 of 2
The new species ate plants (that is, they were herbivores), which is probably the reason they had long necks—in order to reach leaves from tall trees.
Additional information is found in the ABC News article “
Outback's 'Zac' could be new dinosaur.”
The palaeontologists are now identifying its bones so it can be formally recognized as a new species of dinosaur.
Species within sauropods (meaning: “lizard footed”) first appeared on Earth in the late Triassic Period, and by the Late Jurassic Period (about 150 million years ago) they were striving in most parts of the world (except for Antarctica).
As a group, they are noted for the enormous sizes, with several of the species being some of the largest ever to roam on Earth.
By the Late Cretaceous Period, most species of sauropods had evolved into the titanosaurs, which eventually died out in the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event (about 65 million years ago).
For additional information on sauropods, please read the EnchantedLearning.com article “
Sauropods.”