Cetiosaurus

Cetiosaurus is historically momentous as the very first sauropod named by science. When Sir Richard Owen described its enormous vertebrae in 1841, he mistakenly assumed it was a gigantic marine predator, hence its name meaning whale lizard. Later discoveries, notably a reasonably complete skeleton found near Rutland in 1968, proved it was a four-legged terrestrial herbivore. Cetiosaurus lived during the Middle Jurassic period in what is now England. Measuring around 15 metres in length and weighing roughly ten to fifteen tonnes, it had solid, heavy vertebrae that lacked the extensive hollow air chambers developed in later sauropod lineages. It fed on mid-level gymnosperm foliage.

It was the very first sauropod ever discovered and described by palaeontologists.

Where and when

Cetiosaurus lived in the Middle Jurassic, from 168.3 to 166.1 million years ago (Bathonian age). Its remains come from United Kingdom, in the Forest Marble Formation.

The numbers

Length 15 m (estimates run from 14 to 16 m). Mass about 12 t. Hip height about 3.8 m. That is 8.8 human-lengths, or 1.34 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from partial skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.

Compare Cetiosaurus with a bus Place on the timeline