Description of a juvenile titanosaurian dinosaur from the Upper Cretaceous of Brazil

作者：Silva Junior Julian C G^*; Martinelli Agustin G; Ribeiro Luiz C B; Marinho Thiago S

来源：Cretaceous Research, 2017, 76: 19-27.

DOI：10.1016/j.cretres.2017.03.029

• Sauropoda
• Titanosauria
• Juvenile
• Marilia formation
• Upper Cretaceous
• Ontogeny
• Pneumaticity

We describe a juvenile specimen of a titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur consisting of two dorsal and three caudal vertebral centra, an ilium fragment, and an ischium unearthed in 1991 from Site Km 153.5 at BR 050 highway in the Serra da Galga region, municipality of Uberaba, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The outcrop at the site is assigned to the Serra da Galga Member of the Marina Formation (Bauru Basin: Bauru Group; Upper Cretaceous: Maastrichtian). Although the material is very incomplete, features such as strongly procoelous caudal centra suggest an affinity with the titanosaurian Glade Lithostrotia. The extensive vertebral pneumaticity with deep pleurocoels and well-developed camerae supports the hypothesis that, in titanosaurs, the air sac system was already present and fully developed even at early ontogenetic stages.

• 出版日期2017-8