biology

Uralosaurus

Uralosaurus 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 Uralosaurus rather than just read about it. In short: Uralosaurus is an extinct genus of erythrosuchid archosauriform known from the Middle Triassic (Anisian stage) Donguz Formation of southeastern European Russia. It contains a single species, Uralosaurus magnus.

Key takeaways

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

Reference excerpt

Uralosaurus is an extinct genus of erythrosuchid archosauriform known from the Middle Triassic (Anisian stage) Donguz Formation of southeastern European Russia. It contains a single species, Uralosaurus magnus. It was named by Vitalii Georgievich Ochev in 1980 as a species of Erythrosuchus otherwise known from the Triassic of Africa and reassigned to its own genus by Andrey G. Sennikov in 1995.

Discovery Uralosaurus is known from the holotype PIN 2973/70, left pterygoid, and from the paratypes PIN 2973/71, lower jaw, and also PIN 2973/72 through PIN 2973/79, teeth. These specimens were collected at the Karagachka locality (locality 34 or PIN 2973), to the opposite bank of the Karagatschka River from Karagachka village located in a drainage basin of left bank of the Ural River, Sol’Iletsk district of Orenburg Region, southern European Russia. They came from the lower Donguz Gorizont of Donguz Formation, which dates to the Anisian stage. Ochev (1979) referred these specimens to a new species of Erythrosuchus which he named Erythrosuchus magnus, in reference to the relatively larger size of this species. Sennikov (1995) reassigned this species to its own genus, creating the new combination Uralosaurus magnus. The generic name refers to the Ural River, the area where specimens of Uralosaurus were found. Other specimens that were referred to Uralosaurus were summarized by Gower & Sennikov (2000). Four presacral vertebrae PIN 952/95 were collected from Donguz Gorizont, at Donguz I (locality 36), from the right bank of the Donguz River, 1 km downstream of Perovsky settlement, also located in a drainage basin of left bank of the Ural River. Dorsal vertebrae PIN 2866/38 through PIN 2866/40 (formerly SGU 104/3857, SGU 104/3858) among other specimens were collected from Donguz Gorizont, at Koltaevo II from Orenburg Region or possibly at Koltayevo III (locality 10) from the Sakmara drainage basin of Bashkortostan as was suggested by Tverdokhlebov et al. (2003).

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Uralosaurus

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

In research: Uralosaurus 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 Uralosaurus 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: Uralosaurus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Anisian genera, Erythrosuchidae, Fossil taxa described in 1995, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Uralosaurus 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 Uralosaurus in 20 minutes

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

Frequently asked questions

What is Uralosaurus in simple terms?

Why does Uralosaurus 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 Uralosaurus?

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 Uralosaurus.