One of the weirdest dinosaurs ever discovered is Magyarosaurus. Magyarosaurus was a sauropod (a long-necked herbivore) from the titanosaur branch, the largest of all. Magyarosaurus actually didn’t have weird features or unrecognizable bones; it looked like a perfectly normal sauropod. That is, until you realized that it was only 6 feet tall and 6 meters long.
Magyarosaurus was closely related to other titanosaurs such as the massive Rapetosaurus and the huge Ampelosaurus, forming the subgroup “Lithostrotia”, or “stone-inlaid”. This is due to small bony plates covering the skin of these titanosaurs. But, all of Magyarosaurus’ relatives were at least 3 times its size, Ampelosaurus being 18 meters long.
So, what made our little dino so little, unlike its titanic relatives? The answer is found in our previous article on Insular syndrome. That’s right, for those of you who have read that, this is going to talking about some stuff in it. For the people who haven’t yet read that article, insular syndrome is a phenomenon when animals that are small or large on a large continent become larger or smaller on islands that can or cannot support a growing population’s needs.
Magyarosaurus lived in a time when the world was getting a bit weird. All the continents were in mostly their proper shape, except for the fact that India was floating in the ocean, nearly a quarter of Africa was underwater, and Europe was a bunch of islands. Magyarosaurus lived in what is now Hungary and Romania, and due to those countries being many little islands, Magyarosaurus evolved into a much smaller form than its French mainland relative Ampelosaurus to not overeat all the plants on one island.
Well, that’s our weird Magyarosaurus! FUN FACT: Magyarosaurus means “Hungarian lizard”
Anay Ganesh 