[1] The Eusauropoda was coined in 1995 by Paul Upchurch to create a monophyletic new taxonomic group that would include all sauropods, except for the vulcanodontids.
[1] The most basal forms of eusauropods are not well known and because the cranial material for the Vulcanodon is not available, and the distribution of some of these shared derived traits that distinguish Eusauropoda is still completely clear.
These plates can be used to strip foliage, the eusauropod's “U-shaped” jaws create a wide bite, and their loss of “fleshy cheeks” increased the gape.
[4] Paleontologist Jeffrey Wilson explains that eusauropods differ from theropods and prosauropods that have digitigrade pes where their heel and metatarsals are lifted off the ground.
[1] According to Steven Salisbury and Jay Nair, basal eusauropods retain four pedal unguals but reduce their phalangeal number in their fourth digit to three units.
[8] Volkeimeria is classified as a basal eusauropod, though in 2004 Paul Upchurch was suspicious of its placement, because of its “opisthoceolous cervical centra, the absence of a femoral anterior trochanter, and laterally projecting cnemial crest of the tibia”, and instead thought it may be a generic sauropod.
[3][9][10] The data around sauropods evolution, as Novas points out, is largely based on a few formations mostly in the Northern Hemisphere.
[13] Shunosaurus Barapasaurus Patagosaurus Omeisaurus Mamenchisaurus Cetiosaurus Jobaria Haplocanthosaurus Limaysaurus Nigersaurus Amargasaurus Dicraeosaurus Apatosaurus Brontosaurus Barosaurus Diplodocus Camarasaurus Brachiosaurus Phuwiangosaurus Malawisaurus Rapetosaurus Isisaurus Opisthocoelicaudia Saltasaurus