La Invernada-Cerro Overo, Rincón de los Sauces, a hot spot in dinosaur paleobiodiversity in the Upper Cretaceous (Bajo de la Carpa Formation, Santonian) of Patagonia, Argentina

FILIPPI, L.; CRUZADO-CABALLERO, P.; MENDEZ, A.; PAULINA CARABAJAL, A.; PREVITERA, E.; GARRIDO, A.; BARRIOS, F.; PIPO, L

virtual

Congreso; The Palaeontological Association Annual Meeting; 2020

The Paleontological Association

In ?La Invernanda-Cerro Overo? area (Rincón de los Sauces, Neuquén Province, Argentina), continental sediments of Bajo de la Carpa Formation (Santonian, Upper Cretaceous) crop out. This area has shown a great diversity of vertebrates, including dinosaurs, such as the abelisaurid theropod Viavenator exxoni, the titanosaur sauropod Overosaurus paradasorum, the ornithopod Mahuidacursor lipanglef, and crocodyliforms, such as the peirosaurid Kinesuchus overoi, together with turtles, fresh water fishes, dinosaur eggs, and fragments of petrified wood (being the flora in general unknown for this formation). As a result of the field work carried out in 2019, a small titanosaur specimen (MAU-Pv-CO-660), partially articulated and integrated by axial and appendicular elements, two theropod specimens (Megaraptoridae indet., MAU-Pv-CO-659 and Abelisauridae indet., MAU-Pv-CO-661), preserving cranial, axial and appendicular bones, and isolated ornithopod bones were recovered. Other isolated remains correspond to turtle shells, fish teeth and osteoderms, and teeth and a mandible fragment of crocodyliforms. This great diversity of fossils allows carrying out multidisciplinary studies, including paleoecological, sedimentological, taphonomic, and paleobiogeographic aspects. The integral approach of this vertebrate and plant association will allow a paleoenviromental and paleobiological reconstruction of the Cretaceous ecosystem in northern Patagonia, around 85 Ma ago.