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The first record of a sauropod dinosaur from Antarctica

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Abstract

Sauropoda is one of the most diverse and geographically widespread clades of herbivorous dinosaurs, and until now, their remains have now been recovered from all continental landmasses except Antarctica. We report the first record of a sauropod dinosaur from Antarctica, represented by an incomplete caudal vertebra from the Late Cretaceous of James Ross Island. The size and morphology of the specimen allows its identification as a lithostrotian titanosaur. Our finding indicates that advanced titanosaurs achieved a global distribution at least by the Late Cretaceous.

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Acknowledgments

Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Técnica (PICT-2007-0365 to M.R. and C.P.T) and Instituto Antártico Argentino provided field trip funding. J. González prepared the illustrations on Fig. 2. R. Sissons, A. Green, and P.D. Mannion provided useful comments on this manuscript. The comments and suggestions of three anonymous reviewers greatly enhanced the quality of this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas (CONICET), INIBIOMA, Museo de Geología y Paleontología Universidad Nacional del Comahue, Buenos Aires, 1400, Neuquén Capital, Argentina

    Ignacio A. Cerda & Leonardo Salgado

  2. CONICET, Museo Carmen Funes, Av. Córdoba 55, Plaza Huincul, Neuquén, Argentina

    Ariana Paulina Carabajal & Rodolfo A. Coria

  3. Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología, Universidad Nacional de Río Negro, Isidro Lobos y Belgrano CP 8332, General Roca, Río Negro, Argentina

    Rodolfo A. Coria

  4. CONICET, División Paleontología de Vertebrados, Museo de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque s/n, B1900FWA, La Plata, Argentina

    Marcelo A. Reguero & Claudia P. Tambussi

  5. Instituto Antártico Argentino, Cerrito 1248, 1010, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Marcelo A. Reguero

  6. División Paleontología de Vertebrados, Museo de La Plata, Paseo del Bosque s/n, B1900FWA, La Plata, Argentina

    Juan J. Moly

Authors
  1. Ignacio A. Cerda
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  2. Ariana Paulina Carabajal
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  3. Leonardo Salgado
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  4. Rodolfo A. Coria
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  5. Marcelo A. Reguero
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  6. Claudia P. Tambussi
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  7. Juan J. Moly
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Correspondence to Ignacio A. Cerda.

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Communicated by: Robert Reisz

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Cerda, I.A., Paulina Carabajal, A., Salgado, L. et al. The first record of a sauropod dinosaur from Antarctica. Naturwissenschaften 99, 83–87 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-011-0869-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-011-0869-x

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