Description of a juvenile titanosaurian dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Brazil. (August 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Silva Junior, Julian C.G.; Martinelli, Agustín G.; Ribeiro, Luiz C.B.; Marinho, Thiago S.
• Is Part Of: Cretaceous research. Volume 76(2017)
• Page Start: 19
• Page End: 27
• Publication Date: 2017-08
• Subjects: Sauropoda -- Titanosauria -- Juvenile -- Marília formation -- Upper Cretaceous -- Ontogeny -- Pneumaticity; Geology, Stratigraphic -- Cretaceous -- Periodicals; 551.77
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cretres.2017.03.029
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0195-6671

Abstract

Abstract: We describe a juvenile specimen of a titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur consisting of two dorsal and three caudal vertebral centra, an ilium fragment, and an ischium unearthed in 1991 from Site Km 153.5 at BR-050 highway in the Serra da Galga region, municipality of Uberaba, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The outcrop at the site is assigned to the Serra da Galga Member of the Marília Formation (Bauru Basin: Bauru Group; Upper Cretaceous: Maastrichtian). Although the material is very incomplete, features such as strongly procoelous caudal centra suggest an affinity with the titanosaurian clade Lithostrotia. The extensive vertebral pneumaticity with deep pleurocoels and well-developed camerae supports the hypothesis that, in titanosaurs, the air sac system was already present and fully developed even at early ontogenetic stages.