Vulcanodon was about 20 feet (6.5 m) long. It was a long-necked, long-tailed plant-eater with a small head, thick legs, and a bulky body. It had nail-like claws on its feet and an enlarged claw on each big toe. Its front legs were relatively long. Although many sauropods may have traveled in herds, bonebeds of Vulcanodon fossils have not been found. Vulcanodon’s life span is not known. Vulcanodon, like other sauropods, probably hatched from eggs. It is thought that sauropods did not take care of their eggs. This big, heavy reptile was an herbivore (it ate only plants, like ferns and tree leaves). It must have eaten a tremendous amount of plant material each day to sustain itself. Vulcanodon must have spent most of its time grazing. It swallowed leaves and other vegetation whole, without chewing them. Its food probably included conifers (which were the dominant plant eaters when the large sauropods lived), gingkos, seed ferns, cycads, bennettitaleans, ferns, club mosses, and horsetails. Vulcanodon was a sauropods, whose intelligence was the among the lowest of the dinosaurs. Vulcanodon lived during the early Jurrasic period, about 208-201 million years ago. A partial fossil of Vulcanodon was been found in Mashonaland North, Zimbabwe, Africa. The fossil footprints called Deaterosauropodopus from Lesotho, South Africa, may belong to Vulcanodon.
