biology

Tietasaura

Tietasaura 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 Tietasaura rather than just read about it. In short: Tietasaura (meaning "Tieta lizard") is an extinct genus of elasmarian ornithopod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Marfim Formation of Brazil. The genus contains a single species, T. derbyiana, known from a single incomplete femur.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Tietasaura (meaning "Tieta lizard") is an extinct genus of elasmarian ornithopod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous Marfim Formation of Brazil. The genus contains a single species, T. derbyiana, known from a single incomplete femur. Tietasaura is notable for being the first ornithischian dinosaur ever named from Brazil.

Discovery and naming

The Tietasaura holotype specimen, NHM-PV R.3424, was discovered in 1906 during a series of expeditions by London's Natural History Museum to South America, lasting from 1859 to 1906. Some of the fossils found during these trips were described in publications in 1860 and 1907. This particular fieldwork was conducted along a beach near the Bahia-São Francisco Railway in the city of Salvador in Bahia, Brazil. This locality belongs to the Marfim Formation of the Recôncavo Basin. The specimen, which consists of the distal end of left femur, is among the first dinosaur remains found in South America. While it is now confidently regarded as belonging to a dinosaur, early observations labeled the bone as belonging to "Hyposaurus sp." (a dyrosaurid crocodyliform) in the collections of the Natural History Museum, and the museum's digital collections inaccurately list it as a specimen of Sarcosuchus hartti (a pholidosaurid crocodyliform). In 2024, Bandeira et al. described Tietasaura derbyiana as a new genus and species of elasmarian ornithopod based on these fossil remains. The generic name, Tietasaura, combines "Tieta"—the name of the main character in the Brazilian novel Tieta do Agreste—and "saura" (σαύρα), the feminine declination of the Greek word "sauros", meaning "lizard". The name "Tieta" is also a nickname for "Antonieta" in Portuguese, which means "priceless"; the describing authors use this meaning to reflect the specimen's value as the first ornithischian named from Brazil. The specific name, derbyiana, honors geologist Orville A. Derby and his contributions to paleontology in Brazil.

Classification In their phylogenetic analyses, Bandeira et al. (2024) recovered Tietasaura as an ornithopod member of the Elasmaria, as the sister taxon to Notohypsilophodon. Their results are displayed in the cladogram below:

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tietasaura

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

In research: Tietasaura 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 Tietasaura 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: Tietasaura is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Dinosaur genera, Dinosaurs of Brazil, Elasmaria, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tietasaura 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 “Tietasaura” →

Affiliate

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

How to study Tietasaura in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Tietasaura in simple terms?

Why does Tietasaura 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 Tietasaura?

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 Tietasaura.