A new titanosaur from western São Paulo State, Upper Cretaceous Bauru Group, south-east Brazil

Abstract

Material from a new titanosaur from the Bauru Basin (Bauru Group), Brazil is described and compared with well-known titanosaurs. Adamantisaurus mezzalirai gen. et sp. nov. is based on six articulated anterior caudal vertebrae and two haemapophyses collected from the Adamantina Formation, which is considered to be Campanian-Maastrichtian? in age. Adamantisaurus mezzalirai is characterized by the following combination of characteristics: anterior caudal vertebrae with straight or slightly backwardly-projecting neural spines with strongly expanded distal ends, stout prespinal lamina, very wide pre- and postzygapophyseal articular facets, and concave postzygapophyseal articular facets on anterior caudal vertebrae. Although our cladistic analysis has produced equivocal results, Adamantisaurus mezzalirai shares with DGM 'Series B' (Peiropolis titanosaur) and Aeolosaurus the presence of postzygapophyses with concave articular facets, and shares with DGM 'Series B' the presence of laterally expanded neural spines and stout prespinal lamina. Additionally, A. mezzalirai shares with DGM 'Series' C (other titanosaur from Peiropolis) the presence of short neural spines.