Arrudatitan is an extinct genus of titanosaur sauropod dinosaur known from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian)-aged Adamantina Formation of Brazil. The type species, A. maximus, was named and described in 2011 as a species of Aeolosaurus, but was separated into its own genus in 2021.[1]
Discovery and naming[]
The name's meaning is: Arruda's giant. The holotype, MPMA 12-0001-97, consists of an incomplete skeleton including cervical, dorsal, and caudal vertebrae, ribs, and appendicular elements, with other specimens known, such as an indeterminate femur. It was relatively gracile for a titanosaur.[2]
Fossil
The species Aeolosaurus maximus was named by Santucci and De Arruda-Campos in 2011 for titanosaur remains recovered in the Adamantina Formation of Brazil. However, subsequent cladistic analyses, such as those by Silva et al. in 2019 and Hechenleitner et al. in 2020 have considered A. maximus to be outside Aeolosaurus, the former analysis finding it to be sister to Rinconsauria and the latter finding it to be closely related to a clade consisting of Punatitan and the other two Aeolosaurus species.[3][4]
Description[]
Arrudatitan grew up to 15 metres (49 ft) when fully grown, based on the size of the holotype.[1][4] The femur length of Arrudatitan is 1.55 metres (5.1 ft).
Classification[]
The species Aeolosaurus maximus was named by Santucci and De Arruda-Campos in 2011 for titanosaur remains recovered in the Adamantina Formation of Brazil. However, subsequent cladistic analyses, such as those by Silva et al. in 2019[7] and Hechenleitner et al. in 2020[8] have considered A. maximus to be outside Aeolosaurus, the former analysis finding it to be sister to Rinconsauria and the latter finding it to be closely related to a clade consisting of Punatitan and the other two Aeolosaurus species. In light of this, Silva et al. transferred it to the new genus Arrudatitan, after Brazilian paleontologist Antonio Celso de Arruda Campos.
A cladogram of the phylogenetic analysis performed by Silva et al., 2021 is shown below:[2]
| Rinconsauria |
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