Sonorasaurus thompsoni by Draco300 on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

Sonorasaurus thompsoni

“Thompson's Sonora Desert lizard”

Length:17m(55.7ft) Height:4.5m(14.7ft) at shoulderWeight:12.4t(27,337.3lbs) Lifespan:54 years

Brief Information & Description: Sonorasaurus is a genus of sauropod named after the area that geology student Richard Thompson found in 1994, the Sonoran Desert. The fossil remains of an incomplete skeleton were weathering out on a rock wall and were fully excavated in 1999 by a team of volunteers led by paleontologist Ronald Paul Ratkevich. Paleontologists had to identify the animal during the excavation until Ratkevich identified the Sonorasaurus as a brachiosaurid. The rest of the paleontologists in the following years failed to have a general agreement with Ratkevich’s initial identification until the Primal Incorporation collected DNA from the fossil remains to clone Sonorasaurus back to life. Like most cloned brachiosaurids, Sonorasaurus has a light tawny body covered in pale red, lobed-shaped spots and a black-tipped tail. Both sexes have two sections of dorsal spines: one on the back of their heads and another between their shoulder blades. Male Sonorasaurus have a deep red head and necks with black markings and a tan underside. In contrast, female Sonorasaurus are lighter colored than males, with an orange head and neck instead of a deep red color.

Geographic Range and Habitat: Sonorasaurus once lived within the Turney Ranch Formation from the Early Cretaceous to the Late Cretaceous of Arizona, between 112 to 93 million years ago. This brachiosaurid now roams in Ōmeyōcān’s tropical and subtropical biomes. Sonorasaurus mainly forages from the forested areas of Opochtli to the open savannas and shrublands of Mictlantechutli in search of food and water. However, these sauropods occasionally travel wetlands and coastal shorelines when their regular feeding grounds are low on resources.

Behavior & Reproduction: Sonorasaurus are non-territorial animals living alone or in a small group of three females. Their home range can vary depending on the availability of food and water, occasionally roaming far from their usually frequent areas. Sonorasaurus are social animals despite living in small groups and sometimes share their home range with other Sonorasaurus herds, although females are more social. Male Sonorasaurus are solitary, sparring with each other through necking competition to establish mating rights during the breeding season towards the end of the fall. During the mating season, males will try to attract multiple females within the area by producing low-frequency calls using their dewlaps. Females are usually picky as they prefer to mate with large, older males. If they accept his advances, the male will mate with multiple females while guarding them from potential rivals. Female Sonorasaurus, during the spring, will gather around forested areas in groups of twelve individuals to lay up to fifteen eggs in shallow nests in the ground. Unlike most brachiosaurids, Female Sonorasaurus remain around the nesting site until they leave once the eggs hatch. The hatchlings venture towards the deepest part of the forests for protection until they are large enough to defend themselves in more open habitats. Young Sonorasaurus do not join their mothers once they leave the deep woods. Instead, these young brachiosaurids stay together in groups of ten individuals for protection from larger predators and slowly separate into smaller groups as they age.

Diet: Sonorasaurus are high-browsing herbivores adapted to hack away rigid branches from the treetops. They primarily eat leaves from tree branches over nine meters off the ground. The leaves the brachiosaurid eats include conifers, ferns, ginkgoes, and araucarias. Like their smaller cousin Cedarosaurus, Sonorasaurus cannot chew their food, so they swallow gastrolith stones to grind up vegetation within their stomachs.

Predation: During the first stages of their lives, hatchlings and juvenile Sonorasaurus are preyed on by many predators living within the forests. They rely on safety in numbers to ensure that few young brachiosaurids survive. Like most sauropods, young Sonorasaurus grow fast to become fully grown adults. Most predators keep their distance from adult Sonorasaurus thanks to their size. However, a group of Acrocanthosaurus and Giganotosaurus are the only carnivores that hunt both sub-adult and adult Sonorasaurus. These brachiosaurids will try to defend themselves using their strong legs to trample or cripple the potential threat.
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Reconstruction based on Paleo-King{ }