Sauropod dinosaur — Titanosauria indet.

Geologic period: Cretaceous — exact interval not yet established from the verified specimen-level source set

Age: Exact age of this individual osteoderm remains unassigned pending specimen-level catalog linkage.

Feeding: Herbivorous.

Locomotion: Terrestrial quadruped.

Body plan: Titanosaurs were long-necked quadrupedal sauropods; some species carried osteoderms in their skin.

Evidence: The osteoderm itself is direct evidence. Its exact position on the living animal may require comparison with better-associated specimens.

Why it matters: This small object reveals something a huge sauropod skeleton might not: some titanosaurs had bony elements embedded in their skin.

Plain Language Identity: A skin-bone, or osteoderm, from an unidentified titanosaurian sauropod.

What You Are Looking At: A piece of bone that developed within the skin rather than a vertebra, limb bone or skull element.

Preservation: Original dermal bone fossil.

Open Questions: Because the inventory identifies it only as Titanosauria indet., do not assign a genus, species or exact body position.

Source Urls: https://naturalhistory.si.edu/visit/virtual-tour/current-exhibits/deep-time-virtual-tour-fossil-list

Enrichment Method: SAGE curated research pass; title + scientific name + source scene matched; comparative chronology retained; evidence separated from inference

Scientific name: Titanosauria indet.

Evidence / representation: comparative_titanosaur_osteoderm_visual

comparative_titanosaur_osteoderm_visual

Cretaceous Worlds: Dinosaurs at Their Most Diverse.

Media license: CC BY-SA 3.0

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0