Outline: a typical sauropod
Qunkasaura
Type species Qunkasaura pintiquiniestra
- Lived
- 84 to 66 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Sauropods, Saltasauridae
- Found in
- Spain
- Named by
- Mocho et al. 2024
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
75 million years ago
Field notes
About Qunkasaura
What it was like
Qunkasaura was a titanosaur, a long-necked, four-legged plant eater, known from a partial skeleton. It was related to Saltasaurus and Alamosaurus.
Its world
It lived in the Late Cretaceous in what is now central Spain. Its bones come from the Villalba de la Sierra Formation, at a rich fossil site that also produced the titanosaur Lohuecotitan and the plant eater Rhabdodon.
How it was found
Mocho and colleagues named Qunkasaura in 2024. Its name comes from an old name for the region.
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
Close relatives
Other members of Saltasauridae
Sources: WikidataNamed in: P. Mocho, F. Escaso, and F. Marcos-Fernández, A. Páramo, J. L. Sanz, D. Vidal, F. Ortega. 2024. A Spanish saltasauroid titanosaur reveals Europe as a melting pot of endemic and immigrant sauropods in the Late Cretaceous. Communications Biology 7:1016:1-10