Friday, December 11, 2015

The Giving of December. Rebbachisaurus

One of the most notable details of Rebbachisaurus are the tall neural spines of the vertebrae,‭ ‬which either stood proud from the back,‭ ‬or supported a sail or hump that ran along the spine.‭ ‬Aside from this Rebbachisaurus was a‭ ‬fairly generic diplodocid sauropod with a large build,‭ ‬long neck and whip-like tail.‭ ‬However,‭ ‬the discovery of another very similar genus of sauropod called Rayososaurus in Argentina has raised the notion that South America and Africa may have been joined by a land bridge for longer than previously thought.‭ ‬The idea of the two being joined has always been around,‭ ‬since the two continents seem to have almost matching types of dinosaurs‭ (‬for example,‭ ‬spinosaurids and carcharodontosaurids‭) ‬during the Early Cretaceous.‭ ‬If the two continents were joined for longer,‭ ‬then that raises the possibility for what may one day be found in a place like South America which was for a long time assumed to have been completely isolated from the other continents early on in the Cretaceous.

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