Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jun 26, 2026

Cetiosauridae

Cetiosauridae is a family of sauropod dinosaurs which was first proposed by Richard Lydekker in 1888. While traditionally a wastebasket taxon containing various unrelated species, some recent studies have found that it may represent a natural clade. Alongside Cetiosaurus from the Middle Jurassic of Britain, other taxa recently assigned to the family include Lapparentosaurus from the Middle Jurassic of Madagascar, and Patagosaurus from the late Early-Middle Jurassic of Patagonia, which share autapomorphies with Cetiosaurus that are not shared by other eusauropods. Additionally, at least one study has suggested that the mamenchisaurids may represent a sub-group of the cetiosaurids, which would be termed Mamenchisaurinae.

Last revised
Jun 26, 2026
Read time
≈ 1 min
Length
302 w
Citations
7
Source
Wikipedia ↗
Cetiosauridae
Temporal range: Late Toarcian—Callovian,
Restoration of Cetiosaurus
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: †Sauropodomorpha
Clade: †Sauropoda
Clade: †Eusauropoda
Family: †Cetiosauridae
Lydekker, 1888
Subgroups1

Cetiosauridae is a family of sauropod dinosaurs which was first proposed by Richard Lydekker in 1888.2 While traditionally a wastebasket taxon containing various unrelated species, some recent studies have found that it may represent a natural clade.1 Alongside Cetiosaurus from the Middle Jurassic of Britain, other taxa recently assigned to the family include Lapparentosaurus from the Middle Jurassic of Madagascar,3 and Patagosaurus from the late Early-Middle Jurassic of Patagonia,4 which share autapomorphies with Cetiosaurus that are not shared by other eusauropods. Additionally, at least one study has suggested that the mamenchisaurids may represent a sub-group of the cetiosaurids, which would be termed Mamenchisaurinae.1

Cladogram of Sauropoda after Holwerda et al 2021, showing the position of Cetiosauridae:4

Sauropoda
References

References

  1. Holtz, Thomas R. Jr. (2012) Dinosaurs: The Most Complete, Up-to-Date Encyclopedia for Dinosaur Lovers of All Ages, Winter 2011 Appendix.
  2. R. Lydekker. 1888. Catalogue of the Fossil Reptilia and Amphibia in the British Museum (Natural History). Part I. Containing the Orders Ornithosauria, Crocodilia, Dinosauria, Squamata, Rhynchocephalia, and Proterosauria. British Museum (Natural History), London 1-309
  3. Raveloson, M. L. T.; Clark, N. D.; Rasoamiaramana, A. H. (2019). "New Information on the Madagascan Middle Jurassic Sauropod Lapparentosaurus madagascariensis". Geosciences. 9 (12): 498. Bibcode:2019Geosc...9..498R. doi:10.3390/geosciences9120498.
  4. Holwerda, Femke M.; Rauhut, Oliver W. M.; Pol, Diego (2021-07-22). "Osteological revision of the holotype of the Middle Jurassic sauropod dinosaur Patagosaurus fariasi Bonaparte, 1979 (Sauropoda: Cetiosauridae)". Geodiversitas. 43 (16). doi:10.5252/geodiversitas2021v43a16. ISSN 1280-9659. S2CID 237537773.