Seismosaurus

earthquake lizard

• seismos · Greek · earthquake, shaking
• sauros · Greek · lizard

The name means "earthquake lizard". It was chosen because the authors imagined that the enormous animal's footsteps would have shaken the ground. The type species, S. halli, honours Jim Hall, who helped discover and recover the skeleton.

Named by

Gillette

Year named

1991

Period

Late Jurassic

Stages

Kimmeridgian – Tithonian

Found in

Morrison Formation, New Mexico, USA

Seismosaurus was originally thought to be a giant, possibly the longest, diplodocid. In 2004 Lucas et al. proposed that it was a species of Diplodocus (Diplodocus hallorum), and it is now generally treated as a junior synonym of Diplodocus. The original size estimates were greatly reduced after later study.