Abdarainurus barsboldi (meaning "Abdarain Nuru tail") is a genus of basal titanosaurid sauropod from the Late Cretaceous Alagteeg Formation of Mongolia. Its name comes from the type locality of the genus, Abdrant Nuru, which is written as Abdarain Nuru in the Russian spelling. Despite currently being classed as a basal titanosaurid, it has been suggested that Abdarainurus may be the first known member of a previously unknown lineage of Asian macronarian sauropods.
Discovery and Description[]
The holotype, PIN 5669/1, was discovered in 1970 in Abdrant Nuru, hence the genus name, during a Joint Sovietz-Mongolian Paleontological expedition and was excavated by V.P. Tverdokhlebov of Saratov State University.
It is a type of long-necked sauropod dinosaur from Mongolia. This dinosaur has been named Abdarainurus barsboldi (pronounced Ab-darah-in-you-rus bars-bold-eye). Named from fragmentary caudal material (fossil tail bones), the scientists conclude that this new long-necked dinosaur represents a highly specialised lineage of Asian sauropods that was previously unknown to science. It has discovered by a researcher from the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St Petersburg, Russia), in collaboration with a colleague from the Borissiak Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences located in Moscow.
In the representative picture we see; an Abdarainurus barsboldi wandering across a floodplain with the soft-shelled turtle (Trionychidae spp.) in the foreground close to the bleached tree stump, whilst a pair of unconcerned ankylosaurus (Pinacosaurus) wander past in the background. Described from a series of eight caudal vertebrae from the base of the tail, along with some middle tail bones and associated chevrons, the fossil material was originally discovered during an expedition to the northern Gobi Desert in 1970, however, the fossils remained unstudied until recently. Tail bones of sauropods can be very diagnostic with numerous autapomorphies (distinctive features), that can help the identification of fossil remains down to the species level (in this case a new species).
References[]
- https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Abdarainurus-barsboldi-PIN-5669-1-holotype-chevrons-Abdrant-Nuru-Mongolia-Alagteeg_fig5_339177722
- https://blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk/blog/_archives/2020/02/13/an-unusual-new-sauropod-from-asia.html
- http://novataxa.blogspot.com/2020/02/abdarainurus.html
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14772019.2020.1716402?journalCode=tjsp20