science

Taveirosaurus

Taveirosaurus 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 Taveirosaurus rather than just read about it. In short: Taveirosaurus (meaning "Taveiro lizard") is a genus of possibly eutriconodontan mammal from the Late Cretaceous Argilas de Aveiro Formation of Portugal, and also Laño, Spain. The genus is based solely on teeth, and the type species is T. costai.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Taveirosaurus (meaning "Taveiro lizard") is a genus of possibly eutriconodontan mammal from the Late Cretaceous Argilas de Aveiro Formation of Portugal, and also Laño, Spain. The genus is based solely on teeth, and the type species is T. costai.

Discovery and naming In 1968, Miguel Telles Antunes and Giuseppe Manuppella uncovered fossils at the Cerâmica do Mondego quarry near Taveiro, a village in Portugal, southwest of Coimbra. Among them were a number of low triangular teeth of a herbivorous dinosaur. In 1991 these were named and described by Telles Antunes and Denise Sigogneau-Russell as the type species, Taveirosaurus costai. The generic name refers to Taveiro. The specific name honours the Portuguese geologist João Carrington da Costa. The holotype, CEGUNL-TV 10, was found in ancient river clay of the Argilas de Aveiro Formation dating from the Maastrichtian. It consists of one tooth. Nine other teeth were also assigned to the genus, CEGUNL-TV 6–9, 11 and 13–16. Later, more teeth found near Laño in Spain were referred to Taveirosaurus.

Classification Having only the teeth to base themselves on, Telles Antunes and Sigogneau originally thought that Taveirosaurus belonged to some pachycephalosaurian group. In 1991 they assigned it to the Homalocephalidae, in 1992 to the Pachycephalosauridae. However, they soon rejected this possibility, and Taveirosaurus has not been included in this group in recent reviews. In 1995, it was considered to be a member of the Nodosauridae. In 1996 Peter Galton suggested it might have belonged to the Fabrosauridae, pointing out a similarity to the teeth of Alocodon and Trimucrodon, two other "tooth genera". In 2004 David B. Norman concluded it was a nomen dubium and was unable to identify Taveirosaurus further than Ornithischia. A revision of early-diverging ornithischian phylogeny found that instead of ornithischians, the teeth of Taveirosaurus show the most similarities with members of the early mammal group Eutriconodonta, lacking characteristics of ornithischian teeth while showing a straight cingulum and linear cusps found within eutriconodontans of similar Cretaceous age.

References

External links Dinosauria Translation and Pronunciation Guide

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Taveirosaurus

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

In research: Taveirosaurus 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 Taveirosaurus 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: Taveirosaurus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cretaceous Portugal, Fossil taxa described in 1991, Fossils of Portugal, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Taveirosaurus 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 Taveirosaurus in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Taveirosaurus in simple terms?

Why does Taveirosaurus 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 Taveirosaurus?

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 Taveirosaurus.