Brasilotitan

Brasilotitan (meaning "Brazil giant") is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (early Maastrichtian) Adamantina Formation of Brazil. The type species is Brasilotitan nemophagus.[1]

Brasilotitan
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 72–70 Ma
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Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Clade: Dinosauria
Clade: Saurischia
Suborder: †Sauropodomorpha
Clade: †Sauropoda
Clade: †Eusauropoda
Clade: †Neosauropoda
Clade: †Macronaria
Clade: †Titanosauria
Genus: †Brasilotitan
Machado et al., 2013
Species:
†B. nemophagus
Binomial name
†Brasilotitan nemophagus
Machado et al., 2013

Material and morphology

The holotype was collected near Presidente Prudente city, São Paulo state. It consists of a dentary, cervical and sacral vertebrae, one ungual, and remains of the pelvic region. The mandible has 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. Based on lower jaw morphology, it 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. 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. PMID 26191585.
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