A new basal titanosaur (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the Lower Cretaceous of Brazil

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Highlights

  • A new Gondwanan Early Cretaceous (Berriasian – early Hauterivian) dinosaur species is described.

  • The specimen comes from the Rio Piranhas Formation, Triunfo Basin - Brazil.

  • It is one of the oldest described basal titanosaur ever recorded in Gondwana.

  • The discovery reinforces the South American origin for Titanosauria during the early Cretaceous.

Abstract

Although dinosaurian ichnofaunas are common in the Northeastern Brazilian Interior Basins, osteological remains are poorly represented in these areas. One of the main challenges in vertebrate paleontology in the Lower Cretaceous of this region is to recognize body-fossils, which can unveil the anatomy, functional morphology and paleoecological aspects of the dinosaurian fauna recorded until now only by footprints and trackways. The discovery of a new dinosaur specimen in the Rio Piranhas Formation of the Triunfo Basin opens new perspectives into the comprehension of paleogeographical and temporal distribution of the titanosaur sauropods. Titanosaurs are common in Upper Cretaceous rocks of Brazil and Argentina. The age of the Rio Piranhas Formation is considered to range from Berriasian to early Hauterivian. Thus, the description of this new species opens new viewpoints concerning the paleobiogeographical aspects of these sauropod dinosaurs.

Introduction

Titanosaurs were the most common and diversified group of neosauropods throughout the Cretaceous (Curry Rogers, 2005). Although their remains are present in almost all continents, in South America their fossil record is more abundant and complete (Santucci and Bertini, 2001, Powell, 2003, Poropat et al., 2016). In Brazil, titanosaurs are best recorded in the Upper Cretaceous deposits of the Bauru Basin, being represented mostly by body fossils (Kellner and Azevedo, 1999, Campos et al., 2005, Kellner et al., 2005, Kellner et al., 2006, Santucci and Bertini, 2006, Salgado and Carvalho, 2008, Santucci and Arruda-Campos, 2011, Bandeira et al., 2016). In the São Luís-Grajaú Basin, northern South America, titanosaurs are badly preserved in the lower-Upper Cretaceous (Albian-Cenomanian) strata (Medeiros and Schultz, 2001, Medeiros and Schultz, 2002, Castro et al., 2007, Freire et al., 2007, Lindoso et al., 2013, Medeiros et al., 2014).

Intriguingly, the fossil record of these sauropods in the Lower Cretaceous (Berriasian to Hauterivian) of Equatorial deposits of Brazil are represented almost entirely by footprints (Leonardi, 1979, Carvalho, 1996, Carvalho, 2000, Leonardi and Carvalho, 2000, Leonardi and Carvalho, 2007, Leonardi and Santos, 2004). The only titanosaur species described from this interval comes from the Sanfranciscana Basin (Aptian, Areado Group) (Zaher et al., 2011). Recently, the first titanosaur body fossil has been discovered from the Rio do Peixe Basin complex (Ghilardi et al., 2016). Among the interior basins situated in the Northeastern Brazil, those located in the region of Rio do Peixe, specially Sousa and Triunfo, stand out due to their prolific dinosaur fossil record, in particular on their paleoichnological aspects (Carvalho, 2001, Leonardi and Carvalho, 2002). Footprints and trackways, mainly of large theropods, sauropods and ornithopods and invertebrate ichnofossils, such as traces and burrows produced by arthropods and annelids, are also common (Fernandes and Carvalho, 2001, Carvalho et al., 2017).

The paleontological-geological relevance of Sousa and Triunfo basins lies on the abundance of dinosaurian ichnofaunas that represent an extensive Lower Cretaceous megatracksite (Viana et al., 1993, Carvalho, 2000, Leonardi and Carvalho, 2000, Leonardi and Carvalho, 2002) established during the early stages of the South Atlantic opening. In this area, 37 sites and approximately 96 individual stratigraphic levels preserve occurrences of more than 535 individual dinosaurian trackways, as well as rare tracks and traces of the vertebrate mesofauna (Leonardi, 1989, Leonardi, 1994, Leonardi and Carvalho, 2000, Carvalho et al., 2013). On the other hand, dinosaur remains are poorly represented in these basins. Then, one of the main challenges in the vertebrate paleontology in northeastern Brazil is to find dinosaur body-fossils, which can unveil the anatomy, functional morphology and paleoecological aspects of the dinosaurian fauna recorded until now only by footprints and trackways (Carvalho, 2004, Carvalho et al., 1993a, Carvalho et al., 1993b).

This paper presents a new species of a titanosaur from the Lower Cretaceous (Berriasian to lower Hauterivian) of Brazil and one of oldest worldwide. Additionally, it provides new insights regarding the pattern of distribution of this successful group of sauropods in the equatorial Gondwana.

Section snippets

Geological and paleontological setting

Located in the west of Paraíba State in the counties of Uiraúna, Poço, Brejo das Freiras, Triunfo and Santa Helena, this basin of 480 km2 is an asymmetric graben that was controlled by a northwest transcurrent fault system (Fig. 1). The Precambrian basement is composed of igneous (granites, gabbros and diorites) and metamorphic (migmatites, gneisses, quartzites and marbles) rocks (ANP, 2008, Carvalho, 2000).

In the basin, the main lithologies are clastic rocks: breccias, conglomerates,

Systematic paleontology

DINOSAURIA Owen, 1842.

SAUROPODA Marsh, 1878.

TITANOSAURIFORMES Salgado et al., 1997.

TITANOSAURIA Bonaparte and Coria, 1993.

Triunfosaurus gen. nov.

Type species. Triunfosaurus leonardii sp. nov.

Derivation of name. For the type-locality where the specimen comes from; plus saurus, Greek for lizard, reptile.

Diagnosis. Titanosaur characterized by the following characters (the characters indicated with the asterisks are autapomorphies recovered in the phylogenetic analysis): middle-anterior caudal

Discussion

In spite of the fragmentary condition of the material, it is possible to assess the affinities of the new sauropod. The pubic articulation of the ischium of Triunfosaurus leonardii gen. et sp. nov. is longer than the anteroposterior length of the iliac peduncle, as in Camarasauromorpha (Salgado et al., 1997). Within Camarasauromorpha, Triunfosaurus leonardii gen. et sp. nov. is a member of the clade formed by Europasaurus plus more derived sauropods because of the presence of caudal neural

Conclusion

The new sauropod from the Triunfo Basin opens new perspectives into the understanding of the paleobiogeographical distribution of the titanosaur sauropods throughout South America during the first steps of their evolution. The species described herein is one of the oldest described titanosaur ever recorded in that landmass. This reinforces the hypothesis of a Gondwanan origin in South America for Titanosauria during the Early Cretaceous.

Acknowledgements

We specially thanks the detailed review and suggestions presented by Professor Ralph Molnar. Proper thanks are due to Sidnei da Conceição Berlamino, Wanderlei Andrade de Sousa, Carlos André Santana Duarte that coordinate the excavation of the specimen and to Cao Scarpini and Deverson Pepi by the illustrations. The financial support was provided by Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Faperj) and the Conselho Nacional do Desenvolvimento Científico e

Glossary

ac
acetabulum
af
articular facets
c
centrum
ias
iliac articular surface
pas
pubic articular surface
pc
pleurocoel
poz
postzygapophysis
prz
prezygapophysis
sp
sagital processes
pt
protuberance

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