Rocasaurus

Rocasaurus, meaning General Roca lizard, is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur that lived in South America during the Late Cretaceous, roughly 75 to 70 million years ago. Its fossils come from the Allen Formation of central Argentina and were found at two sites, Salitral Moreno near the city of General Roca in Rio Negro Province, the type locality, and Salitral Ojo del Agua. Expeditions of the National University of Comahue and the Carlos Ameghino Provincial Museum collected the remains between 1989 and 1994, and Leonardo Salgado and Claudia Azpilicueta described the type species Rocasaurus muniozi in 2000. The species name honors the paleontologist Juan Carlos Munoz. The holotype is a partial skeleton of a juvenile animal. Rocasaurus grew to about 8 metres long, which makes it a small sauropod, and it seems closely related to saltasaurids such as Saltasaurus and Neuquensaurus, with a highly pneumatic skeleton.