What is Saltasaurus?
{{italictitle}} {{taxobox | name = ''Saltasaurus'' | fossil_range = [[Upper Cretaceous]] Circa 2020 | image = Saltasaurus_dinosaur.png | image_width = 250px | regnum = [[Animal]]ia | classis = [[Sauropsida]] | ordo = [[Saurischia]] | infraordo = [[Sauropoda]] | unranked_familia = [[Titanosauria]] | familia = '''Saltasauridae''' | genus = '''''Saltasaurus'''''}} '''''Saltasaurus''''' was a large plant-eating [[dinosaur]] with an elongated neck and bony armored [[plate]]s on its [[body]]. It was a [[titanosaur]]id [[sauropod]] which lived during the late [[Cretaceous]] period, about 83 to 79 million years ago. Fossils have been found in [[Argentina]]. It was the first [[genus]] of sauropod known to have [[armour]] of bony plates embedded in its skin. The small bony plates (called [[osteoderm]]s, a feature of modern [[crocodiles]]) have since been found on other titanosaurs. == Description == ''Saltasaurus'' was named by [[paleontologist]]s [[José Bonaparte]] and Jamie Powell in 1980. [[Salta Province|Salta]] is the name of the Northwestern Argentinian Province where fossils were found. They include: a few oval and circular armored plates, hundreds of bumps which covered its back (roughly 1/4 inch = 6-7 mm in diameter), and several incomplete skeletons, including some [[vertebrae]], limb [[bone]]s, and [[jaw]]s. [[Category:Titanosaurs]]