Angolatitan
- Bengo Province, Angola ( Itombe Formation)
- Angola titanium adamastor
Angola Titan is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Africa. This is the first discovered in Angola dinosaurs. The Upper Cretaceous of southern landmass was dominated at the time of the Upper Cretaceous sauropod from the group of Titanosauria. As a relic form of its time Angola titanium was not among the Titanosauria, but is in the pedigree of sauropods as the original Somphospondyli at the base of leading to the development Titanosauria line. The genus was described in 2011 with the only kind Angola titanium adamastor scientifically.
Features
The date the only Fund consists of a fragmentary right forelimb; handed are scapula, humerus, radius and ulna, and metacarpal I, III, and IV The fossils are in the Museu de Geologia as archived under field number MGUAN -PA -003 Universidade Agostinho Neto in Luanda.
The humerus measures 110 cm, 69 cm length of the cubit. The forelimb was generally less robust than most representatives of Titanosauria. The metacarpal bones were slender and correspond in length; at the titanosaurs were against robust and unequal in length. Unlike titanosaurs lacks a distinct olecranon of the ulna, as well as the metacarpal I was not bent.
System
Brachiosaurus
Angola titanium
Malawisaurus
Alamosaurus
Angola titanium is considered to be more primitive than Euhelopus and Titanosauria, but as a derived ( advanced ) as Brachiosaurus. It is placed at the base of the Somphospondyli, the group further includes Euhelopus and Titanosauria with. Together derived characteristics ( synapomorphies ) that allow a classification within this group can be found on the upper arm bone.
Habitat
The finding comes from the Tadi beds, a 50 m thick sedimentary sequence within the Itombe formation, which can be dated based on the characteristic fish fauna of the Upper Turonian. These are marginal marine deposits, fossils include various ammonites, echinoderms and fish, including sharks with one. Terrestrial vertebrates of the site include the turtle Angolachelys mbaxi, the mosasaurs Angolasaurus bocagei and Tylosaurus iembeensis and various plesiosaurs residues.
The habitat of Angola titanium is interpreted as a desert -like. Presumably, this genus as today's wüstenbewonende elephant was similar adapted to very dry conditions.
Research History and naming
Paleontological field work was not possible in the marked by civil war, Angola long time. 2005 PaleoAngola project introduced the first paleontological expeditions since the 1960s, to explore the fossil-rich Upper Cretaceous of the country. The Angola titanium fossils discovered, the paleontologist Octávio Mateus on 25 May 2005 near Iembe in the province of Bengo; in May and August 2006, the excavation took place.
Angola titanium adamastor was described in 2011 by researchers at Octávio Mateus. The genus name can be translated as " Angola - giant". Adamastor is a dreaded by the Portuguese sailors mythical sea giant of the South Atlantic ( Angola was a Portuguese colony until 1975 ).