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Description
Name: "Earth Claw"
Length: 6 m
Height: 1.3 m
Weight: 700 kg
Diet: herbivore
Time: Early Jurassic
Location: South Africa

Aardonyx is a very special sauropodomorph as it represents the transitional stage between bipedal ancestors and quadrupedal descendants.‭ ‬This change is most evident when examining the legs,‭ ‬which show adaptations for a slower,‭ ‬yet more powerful method of walking.‭ ‬These changes combined with an increasingly quadrupedal method of weight bearing would allow the sauropods grow to truly gigantic sizes.
When determining an animal’s age at the time of death,‭ ‬scientists can count the growth rings present in cortical bone structures.‭ ‬When this was done for Aardonyx,‭ ‬both individuals were found to be no more than ten years of age.‭ ‬The exact nature of their deaths is undetermined,‭ ‬but both were found together with a small amount of bone scattering.‭ ‬The fact that they were largely undisturbed might point to natural causes such as two Aardonyx being drowned in a flash flood and then being deposited together.‭ ‬The fact that two that were of the same age died together may indicate that they were also wandering around together in life,‭ ‬and were perhaps part of a larger group.

Description
Name: "Earth Claw"
Length: 6 m
Height: 1.3 m
Weight: 700 kg
Diet: herbivore
Time: Early Jurassic
Location: South Africa

Aardonyx is a very special sauropodomorph as it represents the transitional stage between bipedal ancestors and quadrupedal descendants.‭ ‬This change is most evident when examining the legs,‭ ‬which show adaptations for a slower,‭ ‬yet more powerful method of walking.‭ ‬These changes combined with an increasingly quadrupedal method of weight bearing would allow the sauropods grow to truly gigantic sizes.
When determining an animal’s age at the time of death,‭ ‬scientists can count the growth rings present in cortical bone structures.‭ ‬When this was done for Aardonyx,‭ ‬both individuals were found to be no more than ten years of age.‭ ‬The exact nature of their deaths is undetermined,‭ ‬but both were found together with a small amount of bone scattering.‭ ‬The fact that they were largely undisturbed might point to natural causes such as two Aardonyx being drowned in a flash flood and then being deposited together.‭ ‬The fact that two that were of the same age died together may indicate that they were also wandering around together in life,‭ ‬and were perhaps part of a larger group.