biology

Macrocollum

Macrocollum is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Macrocollum rather than just read about it. In short: Macrocollum is a genus of unaysaurid sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived during the Late Triassic period (early Norian) in what is now Brazil. It is one of the oldest dinosaurs known.

Key takeaways

Macrocollum belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Macrocollum to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Macrocollum from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Macrocollum is a genus of unaysaurid sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived during the Late Triassic period (early Norian) in what is now Brazil. It is one of the oldest dinosaurs known.

Discovery and naming Macrocollum was discovered in 2012 in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, at the Wachholz site of the Candelária Formation, Paraná Basin. It was announced in a press conference on November 21, 2018. The generic name combines the Greek word μακρός (long) and the Latin word collum (neck), referring to the animal's elongated neck. The specific epithet honours José Jerundino Machado Itaqui, one of the main persons behind the creation of CAPPA/UFSM.

Description

Like most early dinosaurs, Macrocollum was relatively small, and walked on two legs. The known remains of Macrocollum are relatively well preserved. The holotype specimen consists of an almost complete and articulated skeleton. The two paratype specimens are both articulated skeletons with one missing a skull and its cervical series. Evidence for an air sac system has been documented in the fossils, and is the oldest known dinosaur with this trait. Macrocollum itaquii differs from all other known sauropodomorphs based on a unique combination of characters such as those found on the skull, which include an antorbital fossa perforated by a promaxillary fenestra, and a medial margin of the supratemporal fossa with a simple smooth curve at the frontal/parietal suture.

Classification Macrocollum, alongside Jaklapallisaurus and Unaysaurus, was found to belong to the clade Unaysauridae.

Paleoecology

Macrocollum lived between about 225.42 to 225 million years ago, in the Norian age of the late Triassic period. It was found in the south of Brazil, which at the time was connected to northwest Africa. At the time, most of the Earth's landmass was united into the supercontinent Pangaea, which was just starting to divide into Laurasia in the north, and Gondwana in the south. U-Pb (Uranium decay) dating found that the Caturrita Formation, close to the holotype locality, dates to around 225.42 million years ago, making it fewer than 10 million years younger than the Santa Maria and Ischigualasto Formations, from where the earliest dinosaurs are known.

Taphonomy The ilia of one of the paratypes of Macrocollum (CAPPA/UFSM 0001b) were used as a model in a study on the taphonomical effects of sedimentary compression on the iliac morphology of early sauropodomorphs.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Macrocollum

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Macrocollum claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Macrocollum before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Macrocollum ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Macrocollum

In research: Macrocollum appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Macrocollum in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Macrocollum is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Dinosaur genera, Dinosaurs of Brazil, Fossil taxa described in 2018, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Macrocollum outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Macrocollum in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Macrocollum means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Macrocollum out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Macrocollum in simple terms?

Macrocollum is a genus of unaysaurid sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived during the Late Triassic period (early Norian) in what is now Brazil. It is one of the oldest dinosaurs known.

Why does Macrocollum matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Macrocollum?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Macrocollum.