Tapuiasaurus

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Tapuiasaurus
Temporal range: Aptian
~125  Ma
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Museum of Zoology of the University of Sao Paulo 2018 25.jpg
Reconstructed skeleton, Museum of Zoology of the University of São Paulo
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Clade: Sauropodomorpha
Clade: Sauropoda
Clade: Macronaria
Clade: Titanosauria
Clade: Lithostrotia
Genus: Tapuiasaurus
Zaher et al. 2011
Species:
T. macedoi
Binomial name
Tapuiasaurus macedoi
Zaher et al. 2011
Restoration Tapuiasaurus NT.jpg
Restoration
Skull of the type specimen Tapuiasaurus.png
Skull of the type specimen
The view of the fossils when discovered Tapuiasaurus plan view.png
The view of the fossils when discovered
Location of where the fossils were found Tapuiasaurus location.png
Location of where the fossils were found

Tapuiasaurus (meaning "Tapuia lizard") is a genus of titanosaur which lived during the Lower Cretaceous period (Aptian age) in what is now Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Contents

Discovery

Its fossils, including a partial skeleton with a nearly complete skull, have been recovered from the Quiricó Formation of the São Francisco Basin in Minas Gerais, eastern Brazil. This genus was named by Hussam Zaher, Diego Pol, Alberto B. Carvalho, Paulo M. Nascimento, Claudio Riccomini, Peter Larson, Rubén Juárez Valieri, Ricardo Pires Domingues, Nelson Jorge da Silva Jr. and Diógenes de Almeida Campos in 2011, and the type species is Tapuiasaurus macedoi. [1]

Classification

Tapuiasaurus was originally assigned to Nemegtosauridae by its original describers, but two subsequent cladistic analyses have recovered it as only distantly related to Nemegtosaurus , with Wilson et al. (2016) recovering the genus outside the Lithostrotia, and Carballido et al. (2017) recovering it as closely related to the Gondwanan lithostrotians Isisaurus and Rapetosaurus . [2] [3]

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References

  1. Hussam Zaher; Diego Pol; Alberto B. Carvalho; Paulo M. Nascimento; Claudio Riccomini; Peter Larson; Rubén Juarez-Valieri; Ricardo Pires-Domingues; Nelson Jorge da Silva Jr.; Diógenes de Almeida Campos (2011). "A Complete Skull of an Early Cretaceous Sauropod and the Evolution of Advanced Titanosaurians". PLOS ONE. 6 (2): e16663. Bibcode:2011PLoSO...616663Z. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016663 . PMC   3034730 . PMID   21326881.
  2. Wilson, J. A., Pol, D., Carvalho, A. B. and Zaher, H. (2016), The skull of the titanosaur Tapuiasaurus macedoi (Dinosauria: Sauropoda), a basal titanosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. doi : 10.1111/zoj.12420
  3. Carballido, J.L.; Pol, D.; Otero, A.; Cerda, I.A.; Salgado, L.; Garrido, A.C.; Ramezani, J.; Cúneo, N.R.; Krause, J.M. (2017). "A new giant titanosaur sheds light on body mass evolution among sauropod dinosaurs". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 284 (1860): 20171219. doi : 10.1098/rspb.2017.1219.