New specimens of Baurutitan britoi and a taxonomic reassessment of the titanosaur dinosaur fauna (Sauropoda) from the Serra da Galga Formation (Late Cretaceous) of Brazil

Julian C G Silva Junior; Agustín G Martinelli; Thiago S Marinho; João Ismael da Silva; Max C Langer

doi:10.7717/peerj.14333

New specimens of Baurutitan britoi and a taxonomic reassessment of the titanosaur dinosaur fauna (Sauropoda) from the Serra da Galga Formation (Late Cretaceous) of Brazil

PeerJ. 2022 Nov 15:10:e14333. doi: 10.7717/peerj.14333. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Julian C G Silva Junior¹, Agustín G Martinelli², Thiago S Marinho^{3

4}, João Ismael da Silva^{3

5}, Max C Langer¹

Affiliations

¹ Laboratório de Paleontologia de Ribeirão Preto, Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil.
² Sección Paleontología de Vertebrados, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales "Bernardino Rivadavia", Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
³ Pró-Reitoria de Extensão Universitária, Universidade Federal do Triangulo Mineiro, Centro de Pesquisas Paleontológicas L. I. Price, Complexo Cultural e Científico Peirópolis, Uberaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
⁴ Departamento de Ciências Biológicas, Instituto de Ciências Exatas, Naturais e Educação, Universidade Federal do Triângulo Mineiro, Uberaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
⁵ Prefeitura Municipal de Uberaba, Fundação Cultural de Uberaba, Uberaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Abstract

The description of new titanosaur specimens unearthed from deposits of the Serra da Galga Formation (Bauru Group, Late Cretaceous) at the BR-262 site, near Peirópolis (Uberaba, Minas Gerais State, Brazil), sheds light on the taxonomy of two taxa previously known from the same area and geological unit: Baurutitan britoi and Trigonosaurus pricei. A comparative revision indicates that T. pricei represents a junior synonym of Ba. britoi, and that the BR-262 specimens belong to that latter species. The information provided by the new specimens also revealed that the paratype of T. pricei (MCT 1719-R), a caudal vertebral series, actually represents a new taxon, named here as Caieiria allocaudata gen. et sp. nov.

Keywords: Brazil; Late Cretaceous; Reassement; Sauropoda; Titanosaur.

Publication types

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

MeSH terms

Animals
Brazil
Dinosaurs*
Geology
Phylogeny
Spine

Grants and funding

This work was supported by Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) (Grant to J.C.G.S.J, Process Number 2018/21094-7; M.C.L, Process Number 2020/07997-4). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.