Saturnalia (dinosaur)

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Saturnalia
Fossil range: Late Triassic

Extinct (fossil)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Sauropsida
Superorder:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	Sauropodomorpha
Infraorder:	Prosauropoda
Genus:	Saturnalia

Saturnalia were a very early sauropodomorph dinosaur, from the Carnian faunal stage of the late Triassic period (227.4 to 220.7 million years ago), making it one of the oldest true dinosaurs yet found. Unlike later, more massive sauropodomorph species, Saturnalia was quite slim. The discovered remains of this species (which amount to very little) have many prosauropod features, yet lack other characteristics shared by all dinosaurs. This may indicate sauropodomorpha were polyphyletic.

[edit] Discovery and species

The holotype was discovered in mid-winter in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and additional remains were discovered during the Roman winter solstice festival, Saturnalia; after which it was named in 1999, along with a Portuguese/Guarani word meaning native. The partial skeleton and referred remains from two other specimens including a jaw and teeth have also been discovered. There is another dubious set of remains from the Middle Triassic of Madagascar, although these may in fact be from some non-dinosaurian herbivorous archosaurs.

Saturnalia species

S. tupiniquim

[edit] Further reading

Max Cardoso Langer, F. Abdala, M. Richter and Michael Benton (1999). A sauropodomorph dinosaur from the Upper Triassic (Carnian) of southern Brazil. Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, 329: 511–517. (technical)

Max Cardoso Langer (2003). The pelvic and hind limb anatomy of the stem-sauropodomorph Saturnalia tupiniquim (Late Triassic, Brazil). PaleoBios 23(2): September 15, 2003. (technical)