Gondwanatitan

• Brazil, Bauru Group (São Paulo)

• Gondwana titanium faustoi

Gondwana Titan is a genus of sauropod dinosaur from the group of Titanosauria that during the Late Cretaceous ( Campanian or Maastrichtian ) of South America lived.

Previously, a fragmentary skull -less skeleton is known, which dates from the Bauru Group in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. The only way is Gondwana titanium faustoi. Gondwana titanium is often classified within the Titanosauria together with the related Aeolosaurus in the group Aeolosaurini.

Features

Gondwana Titan was a relatively small sauropod - the skeleton found as part of a 6 to 7 meters long animal. Like all sauropods, it was a herbivore with a long neck and tail. From other titanosaurs to Gondwana titanium can differentiate by various features ( autapomorphies ): Thus, the anterior and middle caudal vertebrae of Deltopectoralkamm the upper arm bone (humerus ) were heart- shaped and very well developed and shaped differently. Other autapomorphies shows the shinbone ( tibia), whose upper front joint surface is extended upward (dorsal ) and its Cnemial - comb is laterally only slightly curved.

System

The systematic position of this genus is disputed. The describer indicate that Gondwana titanium must be filed within the Titanosauria. Within this group, this genus would not belong to Saltasaurinae ( Saltasaurus and Neuquensaurus ), nor on the very primitive forms such as Andesaurus and Malawisaurus. You notice that Gondwana titanium least shows a common feature with Aeolosaurus: So the spinous processes of the anterior and middle caudal vertebrae were directed to the front. Some paleontologists Gondwana titanium is therefore classified together with Aeolosaurus in a separate group within the Titanosauria - the Aeolosaurini. Rinconsaurus is sometimes also classified within the Aeolosaurini. Upchurch and colleagues ( 2004) classify Aeolosaurus within the Lithostrotia ( = Titanosauridae ), a group that the mechanism involves all progressive Titanosaurier with.

History of research, discovery and naming

The site is located in the region of Álvares Machado in Sao Paulo. First bones were discovered in 1983 by the farmer Yoshitoshi Myzobuchi which informed the vertebrate paleontologists Fausto Luiz de Souza Cunha from the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro. Fausto realized that it was the remains of a Titanosauriers and organized excavations, which brought between 1984 and 1986, the fragmentary skeleton of Gondwana titanium and other vertebrate fossils days. Only partially dissected, the skeleton was preserved since the collection of the Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro, without that took place further investigation. Only in September 1997, the preparation of researchers continued to Alexander Kellner and Sergio de Azevedo, leading to the description of the new genus in 1999. The name Gondwana titanium is made up of Gondwana, the southern super-continent, and from the Titans of Greek mythology. The Artepitheth faustoi honors Fausto de Souza CONHA, the former director of the Museu Nacional in Rio de Janeiro, who excavated the fossils.

The remains date from a layer of mudstone - fine-grained rocks in the clay to Siltbereich - which is part of a normal graded river deposit. Overlying conglomerates also contained the remains of turtles and crocodiles. The site belongs to the Adamantina formation, a layer member of the Bauru Group.

The fossils from Gondwana titanium Are different well preserved. For example, while the humerus, tibia and caudal vertebrae are well preserved, were other bones on the surface or were damaged by vegetation. Many bones were in such poor condition that they could not be collected. All bones were surrounded by a layer of dark and hard layer of manganese oxide.

The skeleton ( holotype, specimen number MN 4111 -V) consists of several vertebrae ( 2 partially cervical vertebrae, seven vertebrae, six sacral vertebrae, 24 caudal vertebrae as well as four non-allocable vertebrae ), the upper part of the shoulder blade ( scapula ), pelvic bones ( the incomplete ilium ( Ilium ), pubic bones ( pubis ) and ischium (Ischia ) ), both humeri, both shins, some ribs, and various other, not attributable to bone.

Documents

Main source

• AWA Kellner, SAK d Azevedo (1999): A new sauropod dinosaur ( Titanosauria ) from the Late Cretaceous of Brazil. In Y. Tomida, TH Rich, P. Vickers - Rich ( hersg. ), Proceedings of the Second Gondwanan Dinosaur Symposium, National Science Museum Monographs 15, pp. 111-142