Jobaria
Type species Jobaria tiguidensis
- Lived
- 168 to 162 million years ago, Middle Jurassic
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Length
- about 21 m (69 ft)
- Group
- Sauropods
- Found in
- Niger
- Named by
- Sereno et al. 1999
Size comparison
To scale
Scale in metersOutline: typical sauropod shape
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
165 million years ago
Habitat
A muddy river floodplain in what is now Niger. Its neighbors included the predators Afrovenator and Spinostropheus.
Field notes
About Jobaria
What it was like
Jobaria was a sauropod about 21 meters (69 feet) long, with a shorter neck than many of its relatives. Its teeth were spoon-shaped, and its skeleton is known almost completely from several animals, young and old.
Its world
It lived in what is now Niger. It shared its world with the predator Afrovenator. The age of its rocks, the Tiourarén Formation, is debated: some scientists place it in the Middle Jurassic, others near the start of the Cretaceous.
How it was found
Sereno and colleagues named Jobaria in 1999. The type species is Jobaria tiguidensis. Its name comes from a creature in local legend, whose bones people linked to the fossils.
Field gallery
More views of Jobaria
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
1 of 3
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
A rock formation can hold fossils laid down millions of years apart, so not every animal here met Jobaria.
The evidence
The science behind Jobaria
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- Several skeletons, including adults and a younger animal, reveal almost the whole body.
- The skull has a short snout and broad, spoon-shaped teeth.
- Its neck was relatively short for a sauropod, and its front legs were shorter than its hind legs.
Borrowed from relatives
- Very little of the skeleton needs to be borrowed from relatives: almost the whole body is known from Jobaria itself.
Still unknown
- The precise age of the rocks that held its fossils.
- Its skin covering and color.
- Whether it traveled in herds.
Discovery timeline
- 1999Named itSereno et al.
- 2002Family treeWILSON
- 2009Fossil sitesRauhut & López-Arbarello
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Jobaria
Named it
Named Jobaria from skulls and skeletons, describing its broad teeth, relatively short neck and early sauropod features.
Cretaceous Sauropods from the Sahara and the Uneven Rate of Skeletal Evolution Among Dinosaurs. Science 286: 1342-1347
Read the paper : Cretaceous Sauropods from the Sahara and the Uneven Rate of Skeletal Evolution Among Dinosaurs (opens in a new tab)Family tree
Compared sauropod skeletons to test their relationships and trace changes in teeth, necks and limbs across the family tree.
Sauropod dinosaur phylogeny: critique and cladistic analysis. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 136: 215-275
Read the paper : Sauropod dinosaur phylogeny: critique and cladistic analysis (opens in a new tab)Fossil sites
Reexamined the age of Jobaria's rocks and argued for a Jurassic age rather than an Early Cretaceous one.
Considerations on the age of the Tiouaren Formation (Iullemmeden Basin, Niger, Africa): Implications for Gondwanan Mesozoic terrestrial vertebrate faunas. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 271: 259-267
Read the paper : Considerations on the age of the Tiouaren Formation (Iullemmeden Basin, Niger, Africa): Implications for Gondwanan Mesozoic terrestrial vertebrate faunas (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Eusauropoda
Sources: Wikidata