page_title: Cathetosaurus
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Cathetosaurus / Description
caption_attribution_description: Sacrumof Cathetosaurus lewisi, holotype BYU 9047.
context_page_description: Cathetosaurus is a genus of sauropod dinosaur named from remains found in the United States. It contains one species: Cathetosaurus lewisi that was once thought to be within the genus Camarasaurus. The holotype specimen was originally described by James Jensen and is now in the Brigham Young University collection.
context_section_description: Soft tissue from the mouth region of SMA 0002 made researchers propose in 2016 that the tooth crowns were covered by gingival tissue, and perhaps a keratinous beak.
  The diagnostic characters for Cathetosaurus are: the pelvis is rotated anteriorly, such that the pubis projects posteroventrally, and the ischium projects posteriorly (1),  lateroventrally projecting spurs in the neural spines of the last dorsals (2); posterior cervical and anterior dorsal diapophyses bearing an anterior projection lateral to the prezygapophyses (3); frontals with anterior midline projection into the nasals (4); trapezoidal supraoccipital (more expanded dorsally than ventrally) (5); lateral spur on the dorsal part of the lacrimal (6); fenestrated pterygoid (7); and the large pineal foramen between the frontals (8). Because of this, the proportions of the genus are extremely unusual: it has a very large skull relative to the axial skeleton, the limbs are short relative to the axial skeleton, the ribcage is extremely deep, so that the bottom of the ribcage is below the knee level. These features, and the rotation of the pelvis provided larger belly volume to the species.
caption: Sacrum of holotype BYU 9047
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "NIKON", "Image Model": "E4500", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "GIMP 2.4.6", "Image DateTime": "2009:01:25 23:22:00", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "218", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "300", "Thumbnail YResolution": "300", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1648", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "8267", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "13/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2005:07:26 12:22:20", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2005:07:26 12:22:20", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "1", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "14/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "157/20", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2000", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1500", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1524", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "38", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}