The Appendicular Skeleton of Neuquensaurus, a Late Cretaceous Saltasaurine Sauropod from Patagonia, Argentina
By A. Otero. 2010
116 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Neuquensaurus, from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina and one of the first dinosaurs described from Patagonia, is one of the most derived sauropod dinosaurs, and its proportions and size place it among the smallest sauropods ever known. In this context, Neuquensaurus is central to understanding late stages of sauropod evolution. This contribution offers a full description of the appendicular skeleton of Neuquensaurus. The anatomical analysis reveals that the appendicular skeleton of Neuquensaurus exhibits unique characteristics only shared with closely related saltasaurine titanosaurs; for example, the laterally directed preacetabular lobe of the ilium, the prominent fibular lateral tuberosity, and the presence of an intermuscular line on the femoral shaft, which is proposed here as a synapomorphy of Saltasaurinae. Neuquensaurus also displays many reversals to primitive character states, such as the presence of a prominent olecranon process of the ulna, a trochanteric shelf, a lesser trochanter and an ischial tuberosity. Additional characters that allow its evaluation in a phylogenetic context are here provided. Among them are the extremely deflected femoral shaft, the elliptical femoral cross-section, and the anterolaterally oriented cnemial crest.
Subfields: Nature and Landscape Conservation, Paleontology
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/d0f7b0d47fcd12455efa68454674407c9eb94cf2
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In Nature and Landscape Conservation
In Paleontology
Citations in the corpus
- A Reappraisal of the Late Cretaceous Argentinean Sauropod Dinosaur Argyrosaurus superbus, with a Description of a New Titanosaur Genus (2012, background): “2A), as in other titanosaurs (Upchurch, 1999; Wilson, 2002; Otero, 2010; Mannion and Calvo, 2011).”
- Revision of the sauropod dinosaur Diamantinasaurus matildae Hocknull et al. 2009 from the mid-Cretaceous of Australia: Implications for Gondwanan titanosauriform dispersal (2015, background): “The rugose distal articular surface rises up on to the posterior surface of both condyles, but unlike many derived titanosaurs (Wilson and Carrano, 1999) includingNeuquensaurus (Otero, 2010) and Opisthocoelicaudia (Borsuk-Białynicka, 1977), it does not seem to extend far onto the anterior surface.”
- The early evolution of titanosauriform sauropod dinosaurs (2012, background): “(Otero, 2010.)”
- Postcranial Anatomy and Phylogenetic Relationships of Mussaurus patagonicus (Dinosauria, Sauropodomorpha) (2013, background): “The point of contact between the two surfaces was regarded by Otero (2010) as the femorotibialis crest, a derived character state of the primitive linea intermuscularis cranialis (Hutchinson, 2001) also present in basal forms (e.g., Herrerasaurus) and other basal sauropodomorphs (e.g., Saturnalia…”
- Osteology of the Late Jurassic Portuguese sauropod dinosaur Lusotitan atalaiensis (Macronaria) and the evolutionary history of basal titanosauriforms (2013, background): “Femur, proximodistally elongate midline ridge (linea intermuscularis cranialis) on anterior face, extending along most of shaft length: absent (0); present (1) (Otero, 2010; D’Emic, 2012).”