(pronounced Yoo-TIE-ko-SAW-russ)
Meaning
Jute reptile
Length
15-20 metres (49- 65 feet)
Classification
Sauropoda,
Titanosauria Bonaparte and Coria, 1993
‘Iuticosaurus valdensis’ (Huene, 1929)
Locations
Two of the specimens are known from the Wessex formation at Brook bay. Unfortunately, the best specimen had no locality data recorded for it, but it is possible it also came from Brook Bay.
A long-necked sauropod dinosaur, Iuticosaurus was a browser, eating tough vegetation with its chisel-like teeth. It was probably only a visitor when it died, as there was insufficient vegetation to support a sauropod population.
Iuticosaurus is only known from three incomplete caudal vertebrae, of which only one is well preserved. This specimen, in the collections of the Natural History Museum, includes part of the neural arch and its postzygapothyses
The caudal centrum exhibits a posterior ridge on the lateral face connected to a flattened region on the dorsal surface of the centrum posterior to the neural arch. The centrum is procoelus (the front surface is concave and the back end is convex), and the neural arch is positioned towards the front, both being defining features of titanosaurs.
Material is rare, so please report it if you find some…
LE LOEUFF, J. (1993). European titanosaurids. Revue de Paléobiologie, Volume Spéciale 7:105-117
NAISH, D. and MARTILL, D. M. 2001d. Saurischian dinosaurs 1: sauropods. In MARTILL, D. M. and NAISH, D (eds). Dinosaurs of the Isle of Wight. The Palaeontological Association. Field Guide to Fossils 10. 185-.241
UPCHURCH, P., MANNION, P. D. & BARRETT, P. M. 2011. Sauropod dinosaurs. In BATTEN, D. J. (ed.) English Wealden Fossils. The Palaeontological Association (London), pp. 476-525.