Europasaurus

Europasaurus was a small-bodied sauropod dinosaur that lived on an island in the Late Jurassic, in what is now northern Germany. Its small size is associated with island dwarfism.

Island dwarfism: The evolution of reduced body size in animal populations isolated on islands. Limited island resources and isolation help explain Europasaurus’s unusually small adult size.
Late Jurassic: The final epoch of the Jurassic Period, lasting about 163 to 145 million years ago. Europasaurus lived during this interval, when its German habitat was part of an island setting.
Europasaurus holgeri: The only named species of Europasaurus, described from fossils found in Germany. This species name identifies the fossil animal discussed as Europasaurus.
Brachiosaurus: A large-bodied Late Jurassic sauropod dinosaur known from North America and Africa. Its enormous size contrasts with the reduced adult size of Europasaurus.
Sauropod phylogeny: The evolutionary relationships among sauropod dinosaur lineages. Its exact placement affects how researchers interpret the origin of its small body size.
Sauropoda: The dinosaur clade of long-necked, long-tailed, usually large-bodied herbivores. Europasaurus retained the defining sauropod body plan despite its reduced size.
Langenberg Quarry: A Late Jurassic fossil site near Oker in Lower Saxony, Germany. The quarry yielded the principal Europasaurus fossils alongside remains of other organisms.
Dinosauria: The clade of reptiles that includes birds and their extinct non-avian relatives. Europasaurus is one fossil species within the broader dinosaur clade.
Supersaurus: A gigantic diplodocid sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of North America. Its extreme length illustrates the giant body sizes common among sauropods.
Island biogeography: The study of how geographic isolation and island area shape species diversity and evolution. It frames hypotheses about the isolation and ecological limits of Europasaurus’s habitat.

Linked from 1 page

Sauropod neckBroader topic: Its proportions show that sauropod necks occurred in markedly different body-size contexts.