science

Opisthocoelicaudiinae

Opisthocoelicaudiinae is a science 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 Opisthocoelicaudiinae rather than just read about it. In short: Opisthocoelicaudiinae is a subfamily of titanosaurian dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous. It was named by John McIntosh in 1990.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Opisthocoelicaudiinae is a subfamily of titanosaurian dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous. It was named by John McIntosh in 1990. Opisthocoelicaudiines are known from Mongolia, Argentina, and the United States. Two genera were assigned to Opisthocoelicaudiinae by Gonzalez et al. (2009): Alamosaurus and Opisthocoelicaudia (the type genus), a conclusion also found by Díez Díaz et al. (2018). The hands of opisthocoelicaudiines lacked wrist bones and phalanges. It was suggested by Averianov and Lopatin in 2022 that Opisthocoelicaudia was not in fact closely related to Saltasaurus, and instead to Nemegtosaurus and Quaesitosaurus, which are both also Laurasian, as well as isolated teeth from the Turonian of Uzbekistan and the Santonian of Kazakhstan. Suggesting a more distant relationship to Saltasaurus, Averianiov and Lopatin suggested using the clade name Opisthocoelicaudiidae for the group, limiting Saltasauridae to Gondwanan taxa. Opisthocoelicaudiinae in a cladogram after Navarro et al., 2022:

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Opisthocoelicaudiinae

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Opisthocoelicaudiinae claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, 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 Opisthocoelicaudiinae 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 Opisthocoelicaudiinae 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 Opisthocoelicaudiinae

In research: Opisthocoelicaudiinae appears in science 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 Opisthocoelicaudiinae 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: Opisthocoelicaudiinae is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Dinosaur subfamilies, Late Cretaceous dinosaurs, Saltasauridae, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Opisthocoelicaudiinae 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.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Opisthocoelicaudiinae” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Opisthocoelicaudiinae in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Opisthocoelicaudiinae 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 Opisthocoelicaudiinae out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Opisthocoelicaudiinae in simple terms?

Opisthocoelicaudiinae is a subfamily of titanosaurian dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous. It was named by John McIntosh in 1990.

Why does Opisthocoelicaudiinae matter?

Because it connects several science 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 Opisthocoelicaudiinae?

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 Opisthocoelicaudiinae.