until the discovery of the even older Late Triassic Isanosaurus was announced in 2000. Adam Yates (2004) has recently shown that Vulcanodon is actually much younger than previously thought, dating to the uppermost (latest) part of the Lower Jurassic during the Toarcian stage, approximately 175–183 million years ago. Thus, it is contemporary to the closely related Tazoudasaurus. Although the locality of Vulcanodon itself cannot be dated radiometrically because of weathering of the lavas, it would roughly be a contemporary to Karoo lavas from other localities, as the entire sequence of volcanic eruptions was finished within one million years. Vulcanodon is the only named dinosaur from the Vulcanodon beds. Cooper (1984) noted that the habitat was desert-like, as indicated by aeolian (wind-blown) sands of the Forest Sandstone Formation, which underlies the "Vulcanodon beds". The sediments in which Vulcanodon was found may represent distal alluvial fan deposits which levelled off into a desert landscape, which may have contained lakes during the wet season. The individual may have roamed the shores of wadis that cut into the alluvial fan deposits, unless the carcass was transported to the locality it was found by flooding. Initially, sauropods were thought to be mainly aquatic, inhabiting lush peat swamps and being captive to the buoyancy of water to support their giant body weights. In 1984, Cooper pointed out that Vulcanodon, the most primitive sauropod known at that time, lived in a desert like environment and therefore must have been terrestrial. This indicated that the large body size of sauropods, as already seen in Vulcanodon, had not evolved as an adaptation to an aquatic life style. References Sauropods Early Jurassic dinosaurs of Africa Fossils of Zimbabwe Fossil taxa described in 1972