Cetiosaurus

Cetiosaurus ( meaning 'whale lizard', from the Greek ''''/ meaning 'sea monster' (later, 'whale') and ''''/ meaning 'lizard'), is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic Period, living about 171 to 165 million years ago during the Bajocian and Bathonian ages in what is now Britain and probably France.

Cetiosaurus was named in 1842, making it the first sauropod from which bones were described and is the most complete sauropod found in England. It was so named because its describer, Sir Richard Owen, supposed it was a marine creature, initially an extremely large crocodile, and did not recognise it for a land-dwelling dinosaur. Because of the early description many species would be named in the genus, eventually eighteen of them. Most of these have now been placed in other genera or are understood to be dubious names, based on poor fossil material. The last is true also of the original type species, Cetiosaurus medius, and so C. oxoniensis was officially made the new type species in 2014. C. oxoniensis is based on three more-or-less-complete specimens, discovered from 1868 onwards. Together they contain most of the bones, with the exception of the skull. Cetiosaurus was a quadrupedal, long-necked, small-headed herbivore. It had a shorter tail and neck than most sauropods. The forelimbs on the other hand, were relatively long. It is estimated to have been about long and to have weighed roughly .