biology

Rocasaurus

Rocasaurus 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 Rocasaurus rather than just read about it. In short: Rocasaurus (meaning "General Roca lizard") is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod that lived in South America. Rocasaurus was discovered in Argentina in 2000, within the Allen Formation which is dated to be middle Campanian to early Maastrichtian in age (75 to 70 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous).

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Rocasaurus (meaning "General Roca lizard") is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod that lived in South America. Rocasaurus was discovered in Argentina in 2000, within the Allen Formation which is dated to be middle Campanian to early Maastrichtian in age (75 to 70 million years ago in the Late Cretaceous). This genus grew up to 8 metres (26 ft) long, making it one of the smaller sauropods. It seems to be closely related to saltasaurid dinosaurs, like Saltasaurus and Neuquensaurus. The type species, Rocasaurus muniozi, was formally described by Leonardo Salgado and Azpilicueta in 2000.

Discovery and naming Between 1989 and 1994, expeditions of the National University of Comahue and the Carlos Ameghino Provincial Museum collected titanosaur fossils from the locality of Salitral Moreno, 25 km south of the city of General Roca in Río Negro Province, Argentina. In 2000, Leonardo Salgado and Claudia Azpilicueta described some of these remains as representing a new genus and species, Rocasaurus muniozi. The genus name refers to its discovery near General Roca and the species name honors Juan Carlos Muñoz, director of paleontology at the Carlos Ameghino Provincial Museum, for his support of paleontological research in the region.

Fossil record Fossils of Rocasaurus muniozi are known from the Allen Formation of central Argentina. They have been found at two sites: Salitral Moreno, the type locality, and Salitral Ojo del Agua. Strata exposed at Salitral Moreno and Salitral Ojo del Agua were attributed to the lower member of the Allen Formation by Powell in 1992, but reinterpreted as belonging to the middle member by Salgado and colleagues in 2007. The Allen Formation is considered to date to the Campanian and Maastrichtian ages of the Late Cretaceous. The age of the middle member has been disputed; it has been considered to date to the Late Campanian, but in 2024 Pincheira and Garrido considered it to date to the Late Maastrichtian. The holotype of Rocasaurus muniozi, MPCA-Pv 46, is a partial skeleton of a juvenile individual including partial cervical vertebrae, partial dorsal vertebrae, caudal vertebrae, both ilia, ischia, and pubes, and the left femur. Other elements of R. muniozi found at Salitral Moreno include three cervical vertebrae and several caudal vertebrae. Additional remains of R. muniozi are known Salitral Ojo del Agua, and include partial cervical vertebrae, a partial dorsal vertebra, and a fragmentary ischium.

Description

Rocasaurus is considered a small sauropod. As in the closely-related saltasaurines Neuquensaurus and Saltasaurus, the skeleton of Rocasaurus is highly pneumatic.

Phylogeny Rocasaurus in a cladogram after Navarro et al., 2022:

References

External links Dinosaur Mailing List entry which announces the discovery of Rocasaurus Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Rocasaurus

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Rocasaurus 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 Rocasaurus 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 Rocasaurus 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 Rocasaurus

In research: Rocasaurus 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 Rocasaurus 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: Rocasaurus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Allen Formation, Dinosaur genera, Dinosaurs of Argentina, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Rocasaurus 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 Rocasaurus in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Rocasaurus in simple terms?

Why does Rocasaurus 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 Rocasaurus?

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 Rocasaurus.