Colossosauria
Colossosauria is a clade of titanosaur sauropods from the latest Early Cretaceous through the Late Cretaceous of South America. The group was originally named by Bernardo González-Riga et al. in 2019 and defined as the "most inclusive clade containing Mendozasaurus neguyelap but not Saltasaurus loricatus or Epachthosaurus sciuttoi". The clade contains different taxa depending on the phylogenetic analysis used, in the defining paper the only subgroups were Rinconsauria and Lognkosauria, but alternate phylogenies published previously had also included various similar titanosaurs such as Aeolosaurus, Bonitasaura, Drusilasaura, Overosaurus and Quetecsaurus.
| Colossosaurians | |
|---|---|
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| Skeleton mount of Patagotitan mayorum | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Clade: | †Eusauropoda |
| Clade: | †Neosauropoda |
| Clade: | †Macronaria |
| Clade: | †Titanosauria |
| Clade: | †Eutitanosauria |
| Clade: | †Lithostrotia |
| Clade: | †Colossosauria González-Riga et al. 2019[1] |
| Genera[1] | |
Classification
The phylogenetic analysis of González-Riga et al. (2019) placed Colossosauria as sister taxa to Epachthosaurus, Pitekunsaurus and a larger clade including Saltasauridae.[1]
| Lithostrotia |
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References
- González Riga, Bernardo J.; Lamanna, Matthew C.; Otero, Alejandro; Ortiz David, Leonardo D.; Kellner, Alexander W. A.; Ibiricu, Lucio M. (2019). "An overview of the appendicular skeletal anatomy of South American titanosaurian sauropods, with definition of a newly recognized clade". Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências. 91 (suppl 2): e20180374. doi:10.1590/0001-3765201920180374. PMID 31340217.
- Mannion, P.D.; Upchurch, P.; Jin, X.; Zheng, W. (2019). "New information on the Cretaceous sauropod dinosaurs of Zhejiang Province, China: impact on Laurasian titanosauriform phylogeny and biogeography". Royal Society Open Science. 6 (8). doi:10.1098/rsos.191057.
