Suuwassea, Harris & Dodson, 2004

Harris, Jerald D. & Dodson, Peter, 2004, A new diplodocoid sauropod dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of Montana, USA, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 49 (2), pp. 197-210 : 198

Genus Suuwassea nov.

Etymology: From the Crow (Native American) “suuwassa”. Intended pronunciation: “SOO−oo−WAH−see−uh”. In combination, “suuwassa” means “the first thunder heard in Spring”, but use of the root words, “suu”, meaning “thunder”, and “wassa”, meaning “ancient”, are an homage to the traditional appellation “thunder lizard” often applied to sauropods (following Brontosaurus Marsh, 1879 ). The use of a Crow term further reflects the position of the type locality in ancestral Crow territory as well as its proximity to the present Crow Reservation.The spelling of the name follows the best current orthography for the Crow language, which does not use Latin characters; the pronunciation is approximate and simplified.

Diagnosis.—Supraoccipital with ventral end drawn out into narrow, elongate process that contributes very little to dorsal margin of foramen magnum; basioccipital does not contribute to dorsal side of occipital condylar neck; antotic processes of laterosphenoid separated from frontals by deep notches; cranial cervical neural spines restricted to caudal halves of their respective centra, craniocaudally compressed, expanded distally, concave on all sides, and not bifurcate; distal caudal (“whiplash”) centra amphiplatyan; dorsal tuberculum of humerus well developed; proximal articular surface of tibia wider mediolaterally than long craniocaudally; calcaneus spheroidal; pedal phalanges longer proximodistally than wide mediolaterally.