Spinophorosaurus

What it was like

Spinophorosaurus was an early sauropod, a long-necked plant eater known from nearly complete skeletons. It was one of the first sauropods to have its skeleton scanned into a computer and printed as a physical copy. Its name comes from bony spikes first thought to sit on its tail, but later work suggested those bones may belong elsewhere in the body.

Its world

It lived about 171 to 165 million years ago, in the Middle Jurassic, in what is now Niger. Its bones come from the Irhazer II group of rocks. Few sauropods of this age are known from Africa, so it helps show how the giants spread.

How it was found

Remes and colleagues named it in 2009. The type species is Spinophorosaurus nigerensis.