Europasaurus

What it was like

Europasaurus was a dwarf sauropod. Adults reached only about 6.2 meters (20 feet) long, tiny next to its giant relatives, though it still had the long neck, small head and four pillar-like legs of the group.

Scientists think its small size came from island life. Its ancestors seem to have been stranded on islands, where food was limited and smaller bodies had the advantage over many generations.

Its world

It lived about 152 to 149 million years ago, in the Late Jurassic, in what is now northern Germany. At that time much of the region lay under a shallow sea dotted with islands. Its bones come from the Süntel Formation.

How it was found

Sander and colleagues named Europasaurus holgeri in 2006. The bones of many individuals, young and fully grown, were found at a single quarry, which let scientists prove from growth rings in the bones that these small animals were adults and not babies.