Ledumahadi

Before formal naming or identification, this organism was known as the following on this wiki:
**Elliot Formation prosauropod**

## Statistics

### Diet

Herbivorous

*Ledumahadi* is an extinct genus of sauropodomorph that lived during the Early Jurassic in South Africa.

## Description

*Ledumahadi* is known from partial femur and humerus, which has been estimated to be about 12 tonnes heavy, 15 meters long, 4 meters tall and a quadruped. Ledumahadi had large, robust forelimbs, that were naturally flexed, unlike other sauropodomorphs. *Ledumahadi* is considered the largest Early Jurassic animal to have lived, estimated at 12 tonnes (26,000 pounds), which is twice the size of the ~3-tonne *Camelotia* and even the ~7-tonne (highest estimates) *Lessemsaurus*. Additionally, some early true sauropods were not this large - *Vulacanodon*, for example. *Ledumahadi* is more comparable in weight to the later *Diplodocus* large sauropodomorphs.

This sauropodomorph is known from an anterior dorsal vertebra, an anterior caudal vertebra, a rib, a caudal chevron, an ulna and a pedal ungual. However, more elements have been collected, and are undergoing the preparation process. All remains attributed to the genus are approximately 1.9 times larger than the prosauropod it lived with, and was likely closely related to, *Aardonyx*. Scaling the remains with the latter gives an approximate femur length of ~1500 millimeters and was estimated to have an approximate weight of 10-15 metric tons before description, which is now considered wrong. This is comparable with the femur length of *Diplodocus* (~1540 millimeters) and its weight of 11-17.6 tons (10-16 metric tons). The ulna suggests that this genus was primarily biped, and was not adapted for a quadruped gait. The ulna is 80% of the expected length compared with other elements. However, the forelimbs are enlarged dramatically.

This animal was one of the largest Triassic land animals, the largest bipedal animal ever and indicates that sauropodomorphs could achieve massive sizes without the adaptations sauropods had. Before publication it was known as the "Highland Giant"[*citation needed*].

## Paleoecology

*Ledumahadi* is deemed important to long-term sauropod evolution, like many lessemsaurids. *Ledumahadi* lived a few million years after the Triassic-Jurassic extinction, which may have influenced the size sauropodomorphs could grow very little or not at all. *Ledumahadi* is also significant in the magnitude of size, as it lacked the columnar limbs that were thought crucial to growing as large as sauropods did. Since ornithischians peak sizes at ~12-17 tonnes, it is thought *Ledumahadi*'s size is the maximum an animal can grow without adapting the derived characteristics that led to sauropods multiplying several times the size of *Ledumahadi*.

## Classification

A phylogenetic analysis by McPhee et al. recovered *Ledumahadi* as a Lessemsauridae, closely affiliated with *Antetonitrus* and Lessemsaurus. In 2018, *Ingentia* was named. Thus, it could not be included in the analysis, but was recognized as Lessemsauridae before formal naming. The cladogram below is McPhee et al.'s conclusion:

## References

1. ↑ https://sauroposeidon.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/wedel-and-yates-2011-wavp-a-diplodocus-sized-bipedal-basal-sauropodomorph-from-south-africa.pdf
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ledumahadi
3. ↑ https://sahris.sahra.org.za/cases/osteohistology-nmqr-1551