Mierasaurus is an extinct genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Utah, United States. The taxon was first described and named in 2017 by Rafael Royo-Torres and colleagues, from a mostly complete skeleton including a disarticulated partial skull and mandible, teeth, multiple vertebrae from along the length of the body, both scapulae, radius and ulna bones, a left manus, a complete pelvis, both femora and the entire left hindlimb. Additionally, they referred a lower jaw and femur from juvenile individuals, which were found nearby, to the genus. Collectively, Mierasaurus is among
Mierasaurus is an extinct genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Utah, United States. The taxon was first described and named in 2017 by Rafael Royo-Torres and colleagues, from a mostly complete skeleton including a disarticulated partial skull and mandible, teeth, multiple vertebrae from along the length of the body, both scapulae, radius and ulna bones, a left manus, a complete pelvis, both femora and the entire left hindlimb. Additionally, they referred a lower jaw and femur from juvenile individuals, which were found nearby, to the genus. Collectively, Mierasaurus is among the most completely known North American sauropods. The genus name honours Bernardo de Miera y Pacheco, the first European scientist to enter what is now Utah. The type species for Mierasaurus is Mierasaurus bobyoungi, named after Robert Glen Young, a paleontologist who researched the Early Cretaceous of Utah.
Along with its closest relative Moabosaurus, also from the Early Cretaceous of Utah, Mierasaurus is among the last-surviving members of the Turiasauria, an otherwise Jurassic and European group which can be distinguished by heart-shaped teeth, slender humeri, and the presence of an extra depression on the surface of the ulnae, among other characteristics. Mierasaurus differs from Moabosaurus in characteristics such as lacking vertical ridges on its teeth, having relatively smooth bottom surfaces on its cervical vertebrae, having cervical ribs that do not prominently split into two at their tips, and lacking a bulge on the side of the femur. It is probable that the ancestors of Mierasaurus and Moabosaurus migrated, shortly before the emergence of the former, to western North America from surviving populations of turiasaurs in either Europe or eastern North America.
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