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Two Late Cretaceous sauropods reveal titanosaurian dispersal across South America.
Commun Biol. 2020 10 27; 3(1):622.CB

Abstract

South American titanosaurians have been central to the study of the evolution of Cretaceous sauropod dinosaurs. Despite their remarkable diversity, the fragmentary condition of several taxa and the scarcity of records outside Patagonia and southwestern Brazil have hindered the study of continental-scale paleobiogeographic relationships. We describe two new Late Cretaceous titanosaurians from Quebrada de Santo Domingo (La Rioja, Argentina), which help to fill a gap between these main areas of the continent. Our phylogenetic analysis recovers both new species, and several Brazilian taxa, within Rinconsauria. The data suggest that, towards the end of the Cretaceous, this clade spread throughout southern South America. At the same locality, we discovered numerous accumulations of titanosaurian eggs, likely related to the new taxa. With eggs distributed in three levels along three kilometres, the new site is one of the largest ever found and provides further evidence of nesting site philopatry among Titanosauria.

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Authors+Show Affiliations

Hechenleitner EM
Centro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia Tecnológica de La Rioja (CRILAR), Provincia de La Rioja, UNLaR, SEGEMAR, UNCa, CONICET, Entre Ríos y Mendoza s/n (5301), Anillaco, La Rioja, Argentina. emhechenleitner@gmail.com. Instituto de Biología de la Conservación y Paleobiología (IBICOPA), DACEFyN-UNLaR, 5300, La Rioja, Argentina. emhechenleitner@gmail.com.
Leuzinger L
Centro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia Tecnológica de La Rioja (CRILAR), Provincia de La Rioja, UNLaR, SEGEMAR, UNCa, CONICET, Entre Ríos y Mendoza s/n (5301), Anillaco, La Rioja, Argentina. Laboratorio de Paleontología de Vertebrados, Departamento de Ciencias Geológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Pabellón II, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Intendente Güiraldes 2160, Ciudad Universitaria (C1428EGA), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Martinelli AG
CONICET-Sección Paleontología de Vertebrados, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia", Av. Ángel Gallardo 470, C1405 DJR, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Rocher S
Instituto de Geología y Recursos Naturales, Centro de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica, Universidad Nacional de La Rioja (INGeReN-CENIIT-UNLaR), Av. Gob. Vernet y Apóstol Felipe, 5300, La Rioja, Argentina.
Fiorelli LE
Centro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia Tecnológica de La Rioja (CRILAR), Provincia de La Rioja, UNLaR, SEGEMAR, UNCa, CONICET, Entre Ríos y Mendoza s/n (5301), Anillaco, La Rioja, Argentina.
Taborda JRA
Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra (CICTERRA), Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, CONICET, FCEFyN, Vélez Sarsfield 1611, Ciudad Universitaria, X5016GCA, Córdoba, Argentina.
Salgado L
Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología, Universidad Nacional de Río Negro-CONICET, Av. Presidente Julio A. Roca 1242, 8332, General Roca, Río Negro, Argentina.

MeSH

Animal DistributionAnimalsBiological EvolutionDinosaursFossilsPhylogenySouth America

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Language

eng

PubMed ID

33110212

Citation

Hechenleitner, E Martín, et al. "Two Late Cretaceous Sauropods Reveal Titanosaurian Dispersal Across South America." Communications Biology, vol. 3, no. 1, 2020, p. 622.
Hechenleitner EM, Leuzinger L, Martinelli AG, et al. Two Late Cretaceous sauropods reveal titanosaurian dispersal across South America. Commun Biol. 2020;3(1):622.
Hechenleitner, E. M., Leuzinger, L., Martinelli, A. G., Rocher, S., Fiorelli, L. E., Taborda, J. R. A., & Salgado, L. (2020). Two Late Cretaceous sauropods reveal titanosaurian dispersal across South America. Communications Biology, 3(1), 622. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-01338-w
Hechenleitner EM, et al. Two Late Cretaceous Sauropods Reveal Titanosaurian Dispersal Across South America. Commun Biol. 2020 10 27;3(1):622. PubMed PMID: 33110212.
* Article titles in AMA citation format should be in sentence-case
TY - JOUR T1 - Two Late Cretaceous sauropods reveal titanosaurian dispersal across South America. AU - Hechenleitner,E Martín, AU - Leuzinger,Léa, AU - Martinelli,Agustín G, AU - Rocher,Sebastián, AU - Fiorelli,Lucas E, AU - Taborda,Jeremías R A, AU - Salgado,Leonardo, Y1 - 2020/10/27/ PY - 2020/03/11/received PY - 2020/09/29/accepted PY - 2020/10/28/entrez PY - 2020/10/29/pubmed PY - 2021/6/22/medline SP - 622 EP - 622 JF - Communications biology JO - Commun Biol VL - 3 IS - 1 N2 - South American titanosaurians have been central to the study of the evolution of Cretaceous sauropod dinosaurs. Despite their remarkable diversity, the fragmentary condition of several taxa and the scarcity of records outside Patagonia and southwestern Brazil have hindered the study of continental-scale paleobiogeographic relationships. We describe two new Late Cretaceous titanosaurians from Quebrada de Santo Domingo (La Rioja, Argentina), which help to fill a gap between these main areas of the continent. Our phylogenetic analysis recovers both new species, and several Brazilian taxa, within Rinconsauria. The data suggest that, towards the end of the Cretaceous, this clade spread throughout southern South America. At the same locality, we discovered numerous accumulations of titanosaurian eggs, likely related to the new taxa. With eggs distributed in three levels along three kilometres, the new site is one of the largest ever found and provides further evidence of nesting site philopatry among Titanosauria. SN - 2399-3642 UR - https://www.unboundmedicine.com/medline/citation/33110212/Two_Late_Cretaceous_sauropods_reveal_titanosaurian_dispersal_across_South_America_ DB - PRIME DP - Unbound Medicine ER -