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Submitted: December 3, 2010
Image Size: 4.6 MB
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Island Dwarfby *Eurwentala

Traditional Art / Drawings / Animals

Europasaurus holgeri lived in what is now Germany in the Jurassic. At the time, Europe was an archipelago, and the fossil animals show fascinating adaptations to island life.

These islands were too small to support a population of giant sauropods. Thus, the sauropods shrank until they were only around the size of a cow.

The fact that my Europasaurus is wading is not meant to imply that they were aquatic. I just imagine the animal taking a quick bath and a drink on a hot day. On the background, there is a random four-winged paravian. I know the basal paravians probably (?) couldn't lift their hands above their backs, but couldn't resist the pose.

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*TheRealMaestro Mar 17, 2013 Hobbyist Traditional Artist

The paravian reminds me of the "four-winged lizard" from Gertie the Dinosaur ^^

~EmperorDinobot Feb 22, 2011

Is that thing flying?!

*Eurwentala Feb 23, 2011

Well, I was thinking about gliding with some flapping. Something like the almost-flightless fowl and pigeons do. I suppose there's a tree outside the frame where it jumped to glide.

~Paleo-King Jan 1, 2011 Professional Traditional Artist

It was a brachiosaur, not a titanosaur. The famed dwarf titanosaur was actually Magyarosaurus, which lived much later than Europasaurus. But great drawing nonetheless

*Eurwentala Jan 1, 2011

As far as I have understood, Europasaurus is thought to be a sister taxon of Brachiosauridae (according to Sander et al's 2006 paper and Ksepka&Norell's 2010 phylogeny) and not a brachiosaur itself. In the Wikipedia article about macronarian sauropods Europasaurus is contained within Titanosauriformes, which is what I meant by "a titanosaur". On closer look, I'm not sure what this is based on, since the reference articles don't seem to support that (though I can't read all of them). It seems like the 2010 phylogenetic analysis leaves Europasaurus just outside Titanosauriformes. I suppose it would be most probably right just call it a dwarf sauropod, or perhaps dwarf macronarian.

However, it doesn't seem to be a brachiosaur either.

~Paleo-King Jan 2, 2011 Professional Traditional Artist

Well it's a basal Brachiosaur for all practical purposes.... it's much closer to brachiosaurs than to titanosaurs. I don't know if the meaning "sister taxon of brachiosauridae" really means it's not a brachiosaur, rather it could be a basal "stem-brachiosaur" but really at that point it's like splitting hairs. It's more derived than a camarasaur and is thus grouped in to titanosauriformes. Now the most basal family of titanosauriformes (and the one closest to Europasaurus) is indeed Brachiosauridae. So unless there's another family into which it can be placed, I'd say it's a brachiosaur, even if a very primitive one. The nasal structure is far more like brachiosaurs than anything else, as with the vertebrae. Since brachiosauridae as a clade hasn't been defined all that consistently, it's quite possible it was more inclusive than it's currently understood to be. Things like Paluxysaurus, which have been classed and even reconstructed as titanosaurs, are now more favorably identified as brachiosaurs. It's a cladistics issue more than an evolutionary one. The morphology of Europasaurus is extremely close to all known brachiosaurs so in all likelihood it is also a brachiosaur, and also descended from a common brachiosaur ancestor like Volkheimeria or Atlasaurus. That's just my take on it. The skulls of Atlasaurus and Europasaurus look so similar it's not even funny. They're more like each other than like other brachiosaurs.

*Eurwentala Jan 19, 2011

Ok, thanks for clarifying.

I'll change the description text accordingly.

Though I do not find Europasaurus being the sister taxon of Brachiosauridae all that weird. You have to define a clade somehow, and pick an ancestor, whose descendants will be called brachiosaurs. It's inevitable that the closest (in time and relations) sister taxons will be very similar to basalmost members of the clade. If, of course, Europasaurus is descended from a taxon that is a brachiosaur (is it? I don't know) then it must be a brachiosaur.

~Paleo-King Jan 21, 2011 Professional Traditional Artist

That's the 64,000 dollar question - was Europasaurus descended from a brachiosaur? It was a Late Jurassic animal (Kimmeridgian epoch). This seems to fit with the theory that it was indeed a brachiosaur, since the oldest brachiosaurs were from the Middle Jurassic (such as Volkheimeria, Atlasaurus, Daanosaurus, Lapparantosaurus, and possibly Klamelisaurus). Europasaurus has more brachiosaurid features than any of those early forms, and emerged later. So there's a strong possibility it was a brachiosaur. Living in Europe at the same time as Lusotitan does point to some pretty predictable family ties.

*Eurwentala Jan 27, 2011

It does sound plausible, I agree. Then again, the cladistic analyses have found Europasaurus outside Brachiosauridae. I don't have enough expertise to have a really informed opinion.

~Paleo-King Jan 27, 2011 Professional Traditional Artist

Well.... to be honest I hate cladistics. Not because it's unreliable, but because to MAKE it reliable you have to account for a lot of "characters" that sometimes get missed, and yet so many people (professionals included) tend to treat cladistics like some kind of infallible holy oracle that can never be wrong. Gimme a break! Cladistics is only as good as the software you use and more importantly, the data you put into it! Also your reference taxa need to be MANY in number. For example to do a really strong cladistic analysis of Europsaurus, you need to put in at least five brachiosaur taxa and easily twice as many non-brachiosaurs. Most of these analyses are WEAK because they include only two relevant taxa (for brachiosauridae usually only Brachiosaurus and Giraffatitan) and they tend to define a clade very weakly (brachiosauridae in some analyses is defined only with ONE feature - a femur transversely broad at mid-shaft).

This is a sad way to go. First of all, there are way more diagnostic features than just that one for brachiosauridae. Second, the family must be well-represented. Lusotitan, Bothriospondylus, Pelorosaurus, Cedarosaurus, Abydosaurus, and Paluxysaurus almost NEVER get used as reference taxa. WHY? Because everybody has to do their own cladistic analysis, with their own data. Well that's just dandy, because one person can only gather data on so many specimens. If all the brachiosauridae were put into a juxtaposed analysis (matching a part of Europasaurus against ALL brachiosaurs for which that part has been found) then for each bone there would be a factor of "brachiosaur-ness" or diagnostic match-up with brachiosaurs as opposed to non-brachiosaurs (or N/A for bones not found for any other brachiosaur). These relevant bones could then be rated on the strength of these factors. Average them out and you get the final result.

So the recap, cladistics is ONLY a tool! It can be good or bad for science depending on how effectively you use it. Too many scientists focus on complicated algorithms and concepts like stem-node hypertrophy and "jackknifing" in their cladistics, when they really should be sticking to the basics - large sample sizes, diverse arrays of reference taxa, and stack-juxtaposing body part characters without set limits (overlapping comparisons - since many species only include a few well-preserved bones rather than the whole skeleton). If they can prove it's more basal than Volkheimeria, then for now it's not a true brachiosaur. If that's not possible, then we all know the logical conclusion.

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