Vulcanodon is not that well-known of a dinosaur. Most people have never even heard of it, since it’s never been featured in popular media. However, this sauropod has an interesting story and dinosaur enthusiasts should know about it, which is why we’re going to talk about this dinosaur.
So, what even is Vulcanodon? Where and when did it live? Vulcanodon was a sauropod that lived in the Early Jurassic in what is now Zimbabwe. Vulcanodon was discovered in 1969 and was the earliest known sauropod until the discovery of Isanosaurus in 1998, which was dated to the Late Triassic.
Vulcanodon is pretty well-known for a dinosaur, but (there’s always a but) we have neither neck nor head, meaning that since the lower half of sauropods look pretty similar, we don’t really know which family of sauropods it’s in, or if it’s in its own family. Since we have a few close relatives, we can safely assume that it was in its own family. This also shows that sauropods originated in the southern hemisphere (relatives were found in India and Thailand) or what was then the almost-continent of Gondwana in the Early Jurassic following the breaking of Pangaea in the Triassic.
Vulcanodon’s name means ‘volcano tooth’ since it was discovered in volcanic sandstone. There were knife-like teeth found near the skeleton which were thought to be Vulcanodon’s (there was a theory circulating that early sauropods and prosauropods were omnivorous) but were actually from a scavenger feasting on the carcass. Right now, we know that all sauropods were herbivorous, but some of the earliest sauropodomorphs (dinosaurs more closely related to sauropods than theropods or ornithischians) were omnivorous or carnivorous. True prosauropods, who were basically bipedal sauropods with hands, were also herbivorous.
Alright, so this is the maximum amount of info that I can write without the post becoming a scientific paper, so I am going to leave you here and try to find a ‘W’ dinosaur. Bye!
Anay Ganesh 