Puertasaurus

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Puertasaurus Fossil range: Late Cretaceous
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Sauropsida Superorder: Dinosauria Order: Saurischia Suborder: Sauropodomorpha Infraorder: Sauropoda Family: Titanosauridae Genus: Puertasaurus Novas et al., 2005
Species
P. reuili Novas et al., 2005 (type)

Puertasaurus is a genus of titanosaurid sauropod that appeared during the Late Cretaceous. It lived in what is now Patagonia. The type species, Puertasaurus reuili, is named in honor of Pablo Puerta and Santiago Reuil, the co-discoverers in January 2001 of the specimen. Puertasaurus is based on a partial spine.^[1]

Of the four neck, back and tail vertebrae discovered, together forming the holotype MPM 10002, the most impressive is the back vertebra measuring 1.06 meters (3.48 ft) tall and 1.68 meters (5.51 ft) wide. This is the broadest sauropod vertebra known. Fernando Novas, one of the paleontologists who described Puertasaurus reuili, estimated that the new species was approximately 35 to 40 meters (115 to 131 ft) long and weighed between 80 and 100 metric tons (88 to 110 short tons).^[2] If correct, this would place it as one of the biggest dinosaurs ever to walk the earth, though rivaled in size by the similar Argentinosaurus. It would also extend the period of time in which such very large sauropods lived; this species roamed what is now Patagonia towards the end of the Cretaceous period, some 70 million years ago, in the early Maastrichtian.^[1]

Puertasaurus belonged to the clade Titanosauria.^[1]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Announcement on the Dinosaur Mailing List
• Sizing up the Super-Sauropods (revised)