Look up · dinosaur 1095 of 1,425
early long-neck
Saturnalia
Say it like this: “sat-uhr-NAY-lee-uh”
Saturnalia tupiniquim
Saturnalia ate plants and meat and walked on two legs. It lived in the Late Triassic. Bones have been found in Brazil.
- When
- Late Triassic (Carnian) · roughly 237 to 227.3 million years ago
- Named in
- 1999 · Langer, M. C.; Abdala, F.; Richter, M.; Benton, M. J.
- Hip height
- 0.4 m · 1 ft
- Length
- 1.5 m · 5 ft
- Weight
- 4 kg · 9 lb
- Found in
- Brazil · Santa Maria
- Food and walking
- Omnivore · Two legs
- Kind
- early long-neck · Sauropodomorph
- Family branch
- Saturnaliidae
The story in short
The genus Saturnalia dates to 1999, the year M. C. Langer and colleagues described it. The name honors a person tied to the fossil or its study.
Fossils referred to Saturnalia date to the Late Triassic (Carnian), roughly 237 to 227.3 million years ago. Finds come from Brazil, including the Santa Maria Formation. It was an omnivore and walked on two legs.
Published estimates put Saturnalia at a length near 1.5 m, hips about 0.4 m high, and a body mass around 4 kg.
On the family tree it sits in Saturnaliidae, among the early long-necked dinosaurs.