Traukutitan
| Traukutitan | ||||||||||||
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| Temporal occurrence | ||||||||||||
| Upper Cretaceous ( Santonium ) | ||||||||||||
| 86.3 to 83.6 million years | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Traukutitan | ||||||||||||
| Juárez Valieri , Calvo , 2011 | ||||||||||||
| Art | ||||||||||||
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Traukutitan is a genus of sauropod dinosaurs from the Titanosauria group from the Upper Cretaceous South America. So far only a very fragmentary skeleton is known, which consists of thigh bones and caudal vertebrae and originates from the layers of the Bajo-de-la-Carpa formation in the Argentine province of Neuquén . The only known species is Traukutitan eocaudata .
features
As with all sauropods, it was a herbivore with a long neck and tail. Traukutitan was a great representative of the Titanosauria. It can be distinguished from other genera by a unique combination of characteristics: For example, the vertebral bodies of the anterior caudal vertebrae were higher than broad and strongly procoel (concave on the anterior side). The vertebral bodies of the middle caudal vertebrae were wider than long and almost amphipathic (neither concave nor convex on the anterior and posterior sides). Ventral to the transverse process is a single, deep foramen (opening). The prezygodiapophyseal lamina, a bone bridge in the vertebral arches , is also oriented subvertically.
Systematics
Traukutitan belonged to the more basal (more original) Titanosauria. This can be deduced, among other things, from the amphipathic middle caudal vertebrae - for example, derived (advanced) Titanosauria had procoele caudal vertebrae throughout. However, the genus was more derived than the very basal Titanosauria Andesaurus , Venenosaurus and Phuwiangosaurus , which consistently had amphipathic caudal vertebrae. The vertebral arches show similarities with Futalognkosaurus and Mendozasaurus , which are also summarized as Lognkosauria . Traukutitan could therefore be a late representative of this group.
Find, history of discovery and naming
The only known find (holotype, specimen number MUCPv 204) consists of both thigh bones (femora) and 13 anterior and middle caudal vertebrae, some of which were found articulated. A fragmentary pubic bone was documented by Salgado and Calvo (1993) as another fossil from this find, but it is apparently lost. The find comes from the lowest section of the Bajo-de-la-carpa formation on the north coast of the Los Barreales reservoir and is dated to the Santonium , a stage of the Upper Cretaceous . The fossils are kept in the Vertebrate Paleontological Collection of the National University of Comahue ( Universidad Nacional del Comahue ).
The skeleton was described in 1993 by Leonardo Salgado and Jorge Calvo , but not named. It was not until 2011, was made first description by Rubén Juárez Valieri and Jorge Calvo as traukutitan eocaudata . The name Traukutitan refers to Trauku , a Mapuche mountain spirit who is often depicted as a giant. The ending titan is derived from the titans of Greek mythology . The second part of the species name, eocaudata ( Greek eos - "dawn"; Latin cauda - "tail"), on the other hand, alludes to the original amphipathic morphology of the middle caudal vertebrae.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Traukutitan. In: The Paleobiology Database. Retrieved August 30, 2014 .
- ↑ a b c d e Ruben D. Juárez Valieri, Jorge O. Calvo : Revision of MUCPv 204, a Senonian basal titanosaur from northern Patagonia. In: Jorge Calvo, Juan Porfiri, Bernardo González Riga, Domenica Dos Santos (eds.): Paleontología y dinosaurios desde América Latina (= Series Documentos y Testimonios. Aportes. No. 24). EDIUNC, Mendoza 2011, ISBN 978-950-39-0265-3 , pp. 143–152, online (PDF; 612.13 MB) ( Memento of the original of July 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically used and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
