INVESTIGADORES
APESTEGUIA Sebastian
artículos
Título:
A Late Campanian Sphenodontid Maxilla from Northern Patagonia
Autor/es:
SEBASTIÁN APESTEGUÍA, GUILLERMO ROUGIER
Revista:
AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES
Editorial:
American Museum of Natural History
Referencias:
Lugar: New York; Año: 2007 p. 1 - 11
ISSN:
0003-0082
Resumen:
At the end of the Early Cretaceous the once abundant sphenodontians vanished from the
Laurasian record and were thought to have become virtually extinct, with the sole exception of
Sphenodon, the living tuatara. Recent findings of large and abundant eilenodontine sphenodontids
in the Early Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Turonian) and fragmentary material from other
lineages from Late Campanian outcrops of Patagonia, Argentina, have demonstrated that
sphenodontids constituted an important component of the Late Cretaceous terrestrial ecosystems
in South America and possibly Gondwana. Although eilenodontine and possibly sapheosaurine
sphenodontids are present in the Late Cretaceous of Gondwana, they were only part of an
unknown southern radiation. We report here on a new sphenodontid, Lamarquesaurus cabazai, n.
gen. et sp., which is represented by an incomplete right maxilla that represents a previously
unknown non-eilenodontine lineage and illustrates the diversity and role of sphenodontians in the
tetrapod communities of the Late Mesozoic of South America.