Bonitasaura

  • Bonita aura salgadoi

Bonita Aura is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the group of Titanosauria. So far, a single fragmentary skeleton is known, which dates from the Upper Cretaceous ( Santonian ) of Argentina. The only way is Bonita aura salgadoi.

Features

Bonita aura was about nine feet long, and was thus a relatively small sauropod. Unique skull was with his box-shaped teeth, whose thin, pin-like teeth were limited to the foremost portion of the jaw. Behind it, in the edentulous part of the lower jaw, there are notes on a beak made ​​of keratin, which could have served to cut the plant food.

Diagnosis for Bonita aura within the Titanosauria are the less numerous alveoli, the powerfully built, diagonally oriented bases of the neural arches and the beaded spinous processes of the vertebrae front.

System

Bonita aura was probably closely related to the Malagasy genus Rapetosaurus and the Mongolian genera Nemegtosaurus and Quaesitosaurus. Some researchers believe these genera together with Bonita aura together in a Nemegtosauridae said group.

Fund, Research History and naming

The only known skeleton ( holotype, specimen number MPCA 300) received only fragmentary, but was partially articulated were found ( in the network). Today it is preserved in the Museo Provincial Carlos Ameghino Cipolletti. It consists of three cranial bones - the frontal bone, the parietal bone and the lower jaw including 15 teeth - from portions of the neck, - back, - and tail spine, as well as parts of the limbs, including the upper arm bone (humerus ), radius ( radius ), two metacarpals ( metacarpals ), thigh bone ( femur), shinbone ( tibia ) and two metatarsal bones ( metacarpals ). The skeleton belonged to an immature ( subadult ) animals.

The skeleton comes from a quarry called " La Bonita Hill " near Cerro Policía in the Argentine province of Río Negro. It was found embedded in sandstones that were deposited fluvial ( rivers ) and belong to the uppermost layers of the Bajo de la Carpa - formation.

Bonita aura was described in 2004 by Sebastián Apesteguia first time scientifically. The genus name Bonita Aura has the locality, the quarry " La Bonita Hill ", while the type - epithet salgadoi the Argentine paleontologists Leonardo Salgado honors.

Documents

Main source

  • Sebastian Apesteguia: Bonita aura salgadoi Gen. et sp. nov. beaked sauropod from the Late a Cretaceous of Patagonia. In: Natural Sciences. Volume 91, Number 10, pp. 493-497, doi: 10.1007/s00114-004-0560-6
Mya (unit) Fossil Macronaria Species Metacarpus Digital Object Identifier
138636
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