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

Binomial name

Puertasaurus reuili
Novas et al., 2005

Puertasaurus is the name given to 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 feet) tall and 1.68 meters (5.51 feet) wide. This is the broadest sauropod vertebra known. The describer, Novas, extrapolated that the new species was approximately 35 to 40 meters (115 to 131 feet) long and weighed between 80 and 100 metric tons. If correct, this would place it as one of the biggest dinosaurs ever to walk the earth. 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

^ ^a ^b ^c Novas, Fernando E.; Salgado, Leonardo; Calvo, Jorge; and Agnolin, Federico (2005). "Giant titanosaur (Dinosauria, Sauropoda)from the Late Cretaceous of Patagonia". Revisto del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, n.s. 7 (1): 37-41. Retrieved on 2007-03-04.