[dinosaur] Titanosaurian caudal vertebrae of Cretaceous of Siberia

Ben Creisler
[email protected]

A new paper:


Alexander O. Averianov, Stepan V. Ivantsov & Pavel P. Skutschas (2019)
Caudal vertebrae of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs from the Lower
Cretaceous Ilek Formation in Western Siberia, Russia.
Cretaceous Research (advance online publication)
doi: https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__doi.org_10.1016_j.cretres.2019.104309&d=DwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=tgLaeNc39n3WOrGyk67Bg5jimy6MGPY7HEfs0phkMm4&s=C4gV_3NEIhYjrTGEIxN673FphlCcoqPtTCVzM8SayPY&e= 
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.sciencedirect.com_science_article_pii_S0195667119302617&d=DwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=Ry_mO4IFaUmGof_Yl9MyZgecRCKHn5g4z1CYJgFW9SI&m=tgLaeNc39n3WOrGyk67Bg5jimy6MGPY7HEfs0phkMm4&s=uEe4R3DB55i3NsNYCwKyrINWBqacjk11xb8fge-0gp8&e= 


Three sauropod middle caudal vertebrae are described from the three
different localities within the Lower Cretaceous (Barremian-Aptian) Ilek
Formation in Krasnoyarsk Territory, Western Siberia, Russia. All vertebrae
are strongly procoelous and can be referred to Lithostrotia indet. LMCCE
005/40 from Bol’shoi Kemchug 3 locality has a ventral groove on centrum and
a very large neural spine that projects posteriorly far beyond the centrum.
This specimen also lacks postzygapophyses and bears a heavily sculptured
neural spine suggesting high degree of development of the interosseous
ligaments. The structure of the neural spine LMCCE 005/40 is similar to
that of the saltasaurine Neuquensaurus from the Late Cretaceous of South
America. However, the Siberian specimen lacks camellate bone texture
characteristic for the caudal vertebrae of Saltasaurinae and its similarity
with Neuquensaurus in development of the neural spine likely was
independently acquired. These new findings increase the known diversity of
sauropod dinosaurs in the Early Cretaceous of Siberia, which includes three
taxa of Lithostrotia indet. described herein, lithostrotian Tengrisaurus,
and titanosauriform Sibirotitan.