Brasilotitan

Brasilotitan
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Order: Saurischia
Suborder: Sauropodomorpha
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 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. 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.
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