GIANT TITANOSAUR (DINOSAURIA, SAUROPODA) FROM THE LATE CRETACEOUS OF PATAGONIA

FERNANDO NOVAS, LEONARDO SALGADO, JORGE O. CALVO Y FEDERICO AGNOLIN

REVISTA DEL MUSEO AGENTINO DE CIENCIAS NATURALES

Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia"

Lugar: Buenos Aires; Año: 2005 vol. 7 p. 37 - 41

1514-5158

We report the discovery of a new titanosaurian taxon, Puertasaurus reuili gen. et sp. nov., from Maastrichtian beds of SW Patagonia. Four vertebrae were recovered (i.e., cervical 9, dorsal 2, and two proximal caudals). The new form could be diagnosed on the basis of several features, such as, an inflted neural spine on cervical vertebra, and the second dorsal vertebra extremely short. Puertasaurus is one of the largest known sauropod dinosaurs, with dorsal vertebra 2 measuring 168 cm in width. This is the first time in which a cervical vertebra is known for a giant titanosaurian, offering new insight about neck anatomy of neosauropod dinosaurs.