Brasilotitan
| Brasilotitan Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, about 94 - 84 mya | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Neosauropoda |
| Clade: | †Macronaria |
| Clade: | †Titanosauria |
| Genus: | †Brasilotitan Machado et al.,2013 |
| Species: | †B. nemophagus |
| Binomial name | |
| Brasilotitan nemophagus Machado et al.,2013 | |
Brasilotitan is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Turonian - Santonian) of Brazil. The type species is Brasilotitan nemophagus.[1]
Material and Morphology
The holotype consists of a dentary, cervical and sacral vertebrae, one ungual and remains of the pelvic region, that were collected near Presidente Prudente city São Paulo state. It contains a mandible with an 'L' shaped morphology, with the symphyseal region of the dentary slightly twisted medially, a feature never recorded before in any titanosaur.[1]
Phylogeny
Although the phylogenetic position of Brasilotitan is difficult to establish, the new species is neither basal nor a derived member of Titanosauria and, based on the lower jaw morphology, appears to be closely related to Antarctosaurus and Bonitasaura. This discovery enriches the titanosaur diversity of Brazil and provides further new anatomical information on the lower jaws of those herbivorous dinosaurs.[1]
References
- 1 2 3 Elaine B. Machado; Leonardo dos S. Avilla; William R. Nava; Diogenes de A. Campos; Alexander W. A. Kellner (2013). "A new titanosaur sauropod from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil". Zootaxa. 3701 (3): 301–321. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.3701.3.1.