Osteology and phylogenetic relationships of Tehuelchesaurus benitezii (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the Upper Jurassic of Patagonia

By José Luis Carballido, O. Rauhut, D. Pol, L. Salgado. 2011

93 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The diversification and early evolution of neosauropod dinosaurs is mainly recorded from the Upper Jurassic of North America, Europe, and Africa. Our understanding of this evolutionary stage is far from complete, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. A partial skeleton of a large sauropod from the Upper Jurassic Canadon Calcareo Formation of Patagonia was originally described as a ‘cetiosaurid’ under the name Tehuelchesaurus benitezii. The specimen is here redescribed in detail and the evidence presented indicates that this taxon is indeed a neosauropod, thus representing one of the oldest records of this clade in South America. A complete preparation of the type specimen and detailed analysis of its osteology revealed a great number of features of phylogenetic significance, such as fully opisthocoelous dorsal vertebrae, the persistence of true pleurocoels up to the first sacral vertebra, associated with large camerae in the centrum and supraneural camerae, and an elaborate neural arch lamination, including two apomorphic laminae in the infradiapophyseal fossa. The phylogenetic relationships of this taxon are tested through an extensive cladistic analysis that recovers Tehuelchesaurus as a non-titanosauriform camarasauromorph, deeply nested within Neosauropoda. Camarasauromorph sauropods were widely distributed in the Late Jurassic, indicating a rapid evolution and diversification of the group. © 2011 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2011, 163, 605–662.

Subfields: Nature and Landscape Conservation, Paleontology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3f0658dc48f71fa53f13a04ed79bf2fb19408bee

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Citations in the corpus

Splendid and Seldom Isolated: The Paleobiogeography of Patagonia (2013, background): “F or p er so na l u se o nl y. 0 500 km 0 500 km 165 Ma 150 Ma b Cañadón Asfalto Basin Neuquén asin Austra asin San Jorge asin San Julián asin North Malvinas asin Río Mayo Neuquén Basin Cañadón Asfalto asin B l B B B B a B Chon Aike volcanism Land Fluvial/alluvial Lacustrine Deltaic Shallow marine D”
A new basal rebbachisaurid (Sauropoda, Diplodocoidea) from the Early Cretaceous of the Neuquén Basin; evolution and biogeography of the group (2012, background): “, Cetiosaurus; Upchurch and Martin 2003) and basal macronarians (e.g., Camarasaurus, Tehuelchesaurus; Wilson and Upchurch 2003; Carballido et al. 2011b).”
Postcranial axial skeleton of Europasaurus holgeri (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the Upper Jurassic of Germany: implications for sauropod ontogeny and phylogenetic relationships of basal Macronaria (2014, methodology): “Nevertheless, at least a few examples do not seem to follow this pattern (e.g. McIntosh et al. 1996; Carballido et al. 2011b).”
Osteology of the Late Jurassic Portuguese sauropod dinosaur Lusotitan atalaiensis (Macronaria) and the evolutionary history of basal titanosauriforms (2013, methodology): “, 2011b; D’Emic, 2012), because its dorsal vertebrae lack camellae, although no cervical vertebrae are preserved (Carballido et al., 2011b).”
The early evolution of titanosauriform sauropod dinosaurs (2012, methodology): “The data matrix includes 119 characters (Appendix 2), six of which are multistate (characters 14, 18, 32, 69, 81, 88; three character states each) and all of which were ordered. These characters were ordered because state 1 is structurally intermediate between state 0 and state 2. The analysis was a”