During fieldwork in the Colozacán Valley conducted through 2009 and 2010, a partial theropod skeleton, found in association with various titanosaur sauropod remains, was collected from outcrops of the Los Llanos Formation. This site is located near Tama village in southeast La Rioja Province, Argentina. Following its excavation, the specimen was prepared at the La Rioja Regional Center for Scientific Research and Technology, where it is now permanently accessioned as CRILAR-Pv 506 in the vertebrate paleontology collections. The specimen consists of the centrum of the first dorsal (back) vertebra, a complete second dorsal vertebra, part of the sacrum , a partial left pelvis ( ilium , pubis , and ischium ), and other unidentified fragments.[1]
In 2025, Harold Jiménez Velandia and colleagues describedVitosaura colozacani as a new genus and species of abelisaurid theropods, establishing CRILAR-Pv 506 as the holotype and only known specimen. The generic name, Vitosaura, honors 19th-century soldier Victoria 'Doña Vito' Romero, born in the Los Llanos region near the Vitosauratype locality. This is combined with 'saura', the feminine declension of the Ancient Greekσαῦρος (sauros), meaning 'lizard'. The specific name, colozacani, references the discovery of the specimen in the Colozacán Valley.[1]
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