Sarmientosaurus
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Sarmientosaurus Temporal range: Cenomanian-Turonian |
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| Skull in side views | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Order: | Saurischia |
| Suborder: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Neosauropoda |
| Clade: | †Macronaria |
| Clade: | †Somphospondyli |
| Clade: | †Titanosauria |
| Clade: | †Lithostrotia |
| Genus: |
†Sarmientosaurus Martínez et al., 2016 |
| Type species | |
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Sarmientosaurus musacchioi Martínez et al., 2016 |
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Sarmientosaurus is a genus of herbivorous sauropod dinosaur belonging to the Titanosauria. It lived in what is now South America, specifically Argentina, during the Upper Cretaceous Period about 95 million years ago. The type species is Sarmientosaurus musacchioi.
In 1997, paleontologist Rubén D.F. Martínez, at the Estancia Laguna Palacios of the Goicoechea family in Chubut province, discovered a sauropod skull. This proved to be connected to the first few cervical vertebrae.
In 2016, the type species Sarmientosaurus musacchioi was named and described by Rubén Darío Francisco Martínez, Matthew Carl Lamanna, Fernando Emilio Novas, Ryan C. Ridgely, Gabriel Andrés Casal, Javier E. Martínez, Javier R. Vita and Lawrence M. Witmer. The generic name refers to the town of Sarmiento. The specific name honours the late Eduardo Musacchio, an educator at the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco. The Life Science Identifiers are 537DFE26-54EC-4978-AC86-E83A04FA74DE for the genus and C1090B8D-D051-44F3-B869-8B4A0C802176 for the species.
The holotype, MDT-PV 2, was found in the upper Lower Member of the Bajo Barreal Formation, dating from the Cenomanian to Turonian ages. It consists of an almost complete skull with lower jaws, articulated with the first seven vertebrae of the front neck. Several neck parts, among them the entire atlas and fourth neck vertebra, were too eroded to be salvaged. The specimen represents an elderly individual. It is one of the few titanosaurs for which skull material has been found. Uniquely, at the side of the neck an elongated structure was discovered that was identified as an ossified tendon.
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