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Partial
dinosaur skeleton. Antetonitrus ingenipes provides the first
informative look at a basal sauropod that was beginning to show
adaptations towards graviportal quadrupedalism such as an elongated
forelimb, a modified femoral architecture, a shortened metatarsus
and a changed distribution of weight across the foot. These
adaptations allowed the clade to produce the largest-ever
terrestrial animals. However, A.ingenipes lacked specializations of
the hand found in more derived sauropods that indicate it retained
the ability to grasp. Antetonitrus is older than the recently
described Isanosaurus from Thailand and is the oldest known
definitive sauropod.
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