Dino of the Week: Camelotia

Type Species: Camelotia borealis

Classification: Dinosauria - Saurischia - Sauropodomorpha - Prosauropoda

Time Period: Late Triassic to Early Jurassic

Location: England

Diet: Herbivore

During the Upper Triassic, England was part of Laurasia, the northern continent produced by a splitting Pangaea, and this northern realm was cut by swathes of conifer forests. Camelotia—named after the infamous court and castle of the fabled King Arthur—roamed this pre-Arthurian world. Camelotia stretched thirty feet and reached up to three tons. This dinosaur has a rough history: it was originally named Avalonianus in the 1890s, but Avalonianus consisted of the teeth of an ornithopod and the body of a primitive sauropodomorph. In 1985 all the bones but the teeth were given their own name: Camelotia. The scant remains are limited to a few vertebrae, parts of the pelvis, parts of the hind legs, some fingers, and teeth. Many scientists think Camelotia and Plateosaurus were closely related.

Classifying Camelotia is no easy task, and its placement within the “dinosaur family tree” is changing one year to the next. It has features that belong to both advanced prosauropods and primitive sauropods, making its position on the spectrum murky. The curve of its thigh bone and muscle attachments echo those of the early sauropods; its femur has characteristics of both sauropods and prosauropods; the trochanter minor is a throwback to the prosauropods, but the presence of a fourth trochanter is strictly sauropod-like in nature. These features make Camelotia a mixed bag—a “mutt” of sorts—and scientists take a variety of positions on its identity. Some believe it to be a primitive sauropod, others take it as an advanced prosauropod, and still others point (rather hopefully) at Camelotia and proclaim it an “intermediate species” between prosauropods and sauropods. This last claim would forge a connection between sauropods and at least one line of prosauropod evolution.