Caieiria is an extinct genus of titanosaurian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of the Serra da Galga Formation, Brazil. The only known species is the type species, Caieiria allocaudata
Etymology[]
The Generic name, "Caieiria", is in reference to the Caieiria Locality, while the specific name, "allocaudata" is divided into "Allo" which is Greek for "Strange" or "Different" and "Caudata" which is Latin for "Tail", so the name translates to "Strange Tail from Caieiria."
Discovery[]
Several Titanosaur fossils had been excavated from the Serra da Galga Formation from the 1940s-1960s, including Caieiria. Two Holotypes for new genera were named, these were Baurutitan and Trigonosaurus, and a Paratype for the later Genus was also assigned from 10 caudal vertebrae. In 2022, the Holotype of Trigonosaurus was reassigned to Baurutitan and thus synonymizing the two Genera, meanwhile the Paratype was assigned to a new Genus named Caieiria allocaudata.
Classification[]
A phylogenetic analysis of titanosaurus done by Silva Junior et al., which included Caieiria and Baurutitan (incorporating information from Trigonosaurus), found that both taxa were found at the base of the clade Aeolosaurini, which is recovered within Rinconsauria.
Paleoenvironment[]
Caieiria and several other paleofauna found in the Serra da Galga Formation were originally thought to be part of the Marília Formation before 2020. when its fossil beds were separated into another formation. Examples of other animals from this formation include Baurutitan, the unenlagiine Ypupiara, and the crocodylomorphs Itasuchus, Peirosaurus, and Uberabasuchus.