Padillasaurus

Padillasaurus Temporal range: Early Cretaceous, Barremian PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
The vertebrae of the holotype of Padillasaurus.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Dinosauria
Order:	Saurischia
Suborder:	†Sauropodomorpha
Clade:	†Neosauropoda
Clade:	†Macronaria
Family:	†Brachiosauridae
Genus:	†Padillasaurus Carballido et al., 2015
Type species
†Padillasaurus leivaensis Carballido et al., 2015

Padillasaurus is an extinct genus of brachiosaurid sauropod known from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian stage) Paja Formation in Colombia. It contains a single species, Padillasaurus leivaensis, known only from a single partial axial skeleton. Padillasaurus represents the first South American brachiosaurid ever discovered and named. Before its discovery, the only known brachiosaurid material on the continent was from the Jurassic period, however being very fragmentary.

The fossil was discovered by local farmers in a limestone nodule during the 1990s in Ricaurte, northeast of Villa de Leyva. The exact site of the find is unknown, however the rock matrix in which the fossil was located contains ammonite fossils bellowing to the species Gerhardtia galeatoides and sp., that allow the establishment of their origin in the middle Paja Formation which has been placed in the late Barremian, around 130 million years old. The fossil consists of vertebrae from the torso, sacrum and tail: all presumed to be from one individual. This specimen is the holotype assigned to the catalogue number JACVM 0001; this includes a rear dorsal vertebra, a series from the last two sacral vertebrae and first eight caudal vertebrae (these caudal vertebrae were found without their chevrons). The sacral vertebras have been identified as the fourth and fifth. This fossil was donated by the farmers and became part of the collection at the museum of the Junta de Acción Comunal de la Vereda de Monquirá. Padillasaurus was originally described and named by José L. Carballido, Diego Pol, Mary L. Parra Ruge, Santiago Padilla Bernal, María E. Páramo-Fonseca y Fernando Etayo-Serna in 2015. The name of the genus gives homage to Carlos Bernardo Padilla, the founder of the Centro de Investigaciones Paleontológicas in Villa de Leyva, Colombia. The vertebrae of the holotype specimen were found close to Villa de Leyva, hence the name of the species: “leivaensis”.