On an adult titanosaur specimen from the Auca Mahuevo sauropod nesting site (Anacleto Fm, Campanian, Late Cretaceous) at Neuquén Province, Argentina.

CORIA, R.A.; SALGADO L.; CHIAPPE, L.M.; WINDHOLZ, G.J.

San Luis

Congreso; Reunión de comunicaciones de la Asociación Paleontológica Argentina (RCAPA, 2017).; 2017

Universidad Nacional de San Luis

Here we report the associated remains of an adult sauropod specimen collected from Egg Layer 3, at the egg fossil-bearing site, Auca Mahuevo located at northern Neuquén Province. The remains were buried in a coarse sandstone, and collected from a single digging site. The specimen, MCF-PVPH-335 is a fragmentary skeleton represented by an incomplete posterior dorsal neural arch, four fused sacral vertebrae, the last disarticulated sacral vertebra, an articulated sequence of ten caudal vertebrae, an incomplete sternal plate, a fragment of the postacetabular process of the ilium, a fragment of ischium, left femur and tibia, several thoracic and posterior ribs, and five chevrons. The relative size and fused caudal neural arches with their respective centra suggest the specimen is an adult individual. The presence of anterior caudal vertebrae with centra with anteriorly inclined anterior margins, and postzygapophyses located on the anterior half of the centra, indicate aeolosaurine affinities. The importance of this specimen lies in that it represents the first adult individual collected from the same stratigraphical level in which sauropod fossil eggs, embryos and nests have been recovered.