What is Rapetosaurus?
{{italictitle}} {{speciesbox | fossil_range = [[Late Cretaceous]], {{Geological range|70|66}} | image = FMNH Rapetosaurus.jpg | image_caption = Juvenile skeleton, [[Field Museum of Natural History]] | display_parents = 2 | genus = Rapetosaurus | parent_authority = [[Kristina Curry Rogers|Curry Rogers]] & [[Catherine Forster|Forster]], 2001 | species = krausei | authority = Curry Rogers & Forster, 2001 }} [[File:Rapetosaurus krausei, cast skull, ROM.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Cast skull, [[Royal Ontario Museum]]]] '''''Rapetosaurus''''' is a [[genus]] of [[sauropod]] [[dinosaur]]. It lived in what is now [[Madagascar]] from 70 to 66 million years ago, at the end of the [[Cretaceous]] period. Only one species, ''Rapetosaurus krausei'', has been found. Like other sauropods, ''Rapetosaurus'' was a quadrupedal herbivore. The discovery of ''Rapetosaurus'' was the first time a titanosaur had been recovered with an almost perfectly intact [[skeleton]], complete with [[skull]].<ref>Parsell D.L. 2001. Skeleton of new dinosaur 'titan' found in Madagascar. ''National Geographic News''. [http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/08/0801_madagascardino.html]</ref> It has helped to clarify some difficult issues in this large group of sauropod dinosaurs. It provides a baseline for the reconstruction of other titanosaurs that are known only from partial remains. By the early part of the Upper Cretaceous all sauropods, except the titanosaurs, were extinct. The titanosaurs were the dominant herbivores of the Upper Cretaceous on the southern continents which made up [[Gondwana]]. Their reign was cut short by the [[Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event]]. == Juvenile == The specimen discovered was a juvenile.<ref>Rogers, Kristina Curry & Forster, Catherine A. 2001. The last of the dinosaur titans: a new sauropod from Madagascar. ''Nature'' '''412''', 530–534.</ref><ref>Rogers, Kristina Curry & Forster, Catherine A. 2004. The skull of ''Rapetosaurus krausei'' (Sauropoda: Titanosauria) from the late Cretaceous of Madagascar. ''Jour