Diplodocoidea

Diplodocoidea is a superfamily of sauropod dinosaurs, which included some of the longest animals of all time, including slender giants like Supersaurus, Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, and Amphicoelias. Most had very long necks and long, whip-like tails; however, one family (the dicraeosaurids) are the only known sauropods to have re-evolved a short neck, presumably an adaptation for feeding low to the ground. This adaptation was taken to the extreme in the highly specialized sauropod Brachytrachelopan. A study of snout shape and dental microwear in diplodocoids showed that the square snouts, large proportion of pits, and fine subparallel scratches in Apatosaurus, Diplodocus, Nigersaurus, and Rebbachisaurus suggest ground-height nonselective browsing; the narrow snouts of Dicraeosaurus, Suuwassea, and Tornieria and the coarse scratches and gouges on the teeth of Dicraeosaurus suggest mid-height selective browsing in those taxa.[1] This taxon is also noteworthy because diplodocoid sauropods had the highest tooth replacement rates of any vertebrates, as exemplified by Nigersaurus, which had new teeth erupting every 30 days.[2]

Diplodocoidea
Temporal range: Middle Jurassic–Late Cretaceous, 174–93 Ma
Holotype skeletons of Diplodocus carnegii and Apatosaurus louisae, Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Suborder: †Sauropodomorpha
Clade: †Sauropoda
Clade: †Neosauropoda
Superfamily: †Diplodocoidea
Marsh, 1884 vide Upchurch, 1995
Type species
Diplodocus longus
Marsh, 1878
Subgroups
Synonyms

Taxonomy

The below taxonomy follows the study of Emanuel Tschopp, Octavio Mateus and Roger Benson, 2015:[3]

The phylogenetics of Diplodocoidea were reviewed in 2015 with a specimen-level phylogenetic analysis, as well as a species-level analysis. Their cladistic analysis is shown below.[3]

Diplodocoidea
 

Haplocanthosaurus priscus

 
Diplodocimorpha
Rebbachisauridae
 

Zapalasaurus bonapartei

 
 
Limaysaurinae
 

Cathartesaura anaerobica

 
 

Limaysaurus tessonei

 
 
Nigersaurinae
 

Nigersaurus taqueti

 
 

Demandasaurus darwini

 
 
 
 
Flagellicaudata
Dicraeosauridae
 

Dyslocosaurus polyonychius

 
 
 
 

Suuwassea emilieae

 
 

Dystrophaeus viaemalae

 
 
 
 

Brachytrachelopan mesai

 
 
 

Amargasaurus cazaui

 
 

Dicraeosaurus hansemanni

 
 
 
 
 
Diplodocidae
 

Amphicoelias altus

 
 
Apatosaurinae
 

?Apatosaurinae gen. et sp. nov.

 
 
 
 

Apatosaurus ajax

 
 

Apatosaurus louisae

 
 
 
 

Brontosaurus excelsus

 
 
 

Brontosaurus yahnahpin

 
 

Brontosaurus parvus

 
 
 
 
 
Diplodocinae
 

?Diplodocinae gen. et sp. nov.

 
 
 

Tornieria africana

 
 
 
 

Supersaurus lourinhanensis

 
 

Supersaurus vivianae

 
 
 
 

Leinkupal laticauda

 
 
 

Galeamopus hayi

 
 
 
 

Diplodocus carnegiei

 
 

Diplodocus hallorum

 
 
 
 

Kaatedocus siberi

 
 

Barosaurus lentus

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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References
  1. John A. Whitlock (6 April 2011) Inferences of Diplodocoid (Sauropoda: Dinosauria) Feeding Behavior from Snout Shape and Microwear Analyses
  2. Sereno, PC; Wilson, JA; Witmer, LM; Whitlock, JA; Maga, A; et al. (2007). "Structural Extremes in a Cretaceous Dinosaur". PLoS ONE. 2 (11): e1230. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001230. PMC 2077925. PMID 18030355.
  3. Tschopp, E.; Mateus, O.; Benson, R.B.J. (2015). "A specimen-level phylogenetic analysis and taxonomic revision of Diplodocidae (Dinosauria, Sauropoda)". PeerJ. 3: e857. doi:10.7717/peerj.857. PMC 4393826. PMID 25870766.
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