Angolatitan

After the Angolan Civil War ended in 2002, the PaleoAngola project planned the first Angolan palaeontological expeditions since the 1960s. The first of these expeditions started in 2005 to explore Angola's fossil rich upper Cretaceous rocks, leading to the discovery of Angolatitan. The discovery was made by Octávio Mateus on May the 25 near Iembe in the province of Bengo, and excavations were conducted during may and August 2006.[1]

Angolatitan adamastor was described by Octávio Mateus and colleagues in 2011. The generic name means "Angolan giant". Adamastor is a mythological sea monster that represented the dangers Portuguese sailors faced in the southern Atlantic.[1] Until 1975, Angola was a Portuguese colony.

The only specimen is a partial right forelimb, including shoulder blade, upper arm bone, the two bones of the lower arm (ulna and radius), and three metacarpals. These fossils (Field number MGUAN-PA-003) are stored in the Museu de Geologia of the Universidade Agostinho Neto in Luanda.[1]

The upper arm bone measures 110 centimetres (43 in), the ulna 69 centimetres (27 in) in length. In general, the forelimb was less robust than in most of the more derived titanosaurs. The metacarpals were slender and equal in length; those of titanosaurs were more robust with varying lengths. Unlike titanosaurs, the olecranon was absent, and the first metacarpal was not bowed.[1]

Angolatitan was a basal titanosauriform, more derived than Brachiosaurus but less derived than Euhelopus and Titanosauria, which is notable given its relatively late appearance in the sauropod fossil record.

Recent phylogenetic tests run by Gorsack and O'Conner (2017) recover Angolatitan as a non-titanosaurian titanosauriform.[2]

The specimen was found in a 50 m thick subsection of the Itombe Formation, called the Tadi Beds. Itombe formation was considered Turonian in age, but new data suggests to be Coniacian.[3] These rocks were deposited under marginary marine conditions; fossils include ammonites, echinoderms, and fishes (including sharks). Tetrapods include the turtle Angolachelys mbaxi, the Mosasaurs Angolasaurus bocagei and Tylosaurus iembeensis as well as several plesiosaur fossils.[1]

Angolatitans habitat would have been desert-like. Presumably, this sauropod would have been well adapted to very dry conditions as it is the case with today's desert elephants.[1]