TY - JOUR
T1 - Osteology of the dorsal vertebrae of the giant titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur Dreadnoughtus schrani from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina
AU - Voegele, Kristyn K.
AU - Lamanna, Matthew C.
AU - Lacovara, Kenneth J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Portions of the research occurred at Rowan University (Glassboro, USA), Drexel University (Philadelphia, USA), The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (Philadelphia, USA), and Carnegie Museum of Natural History (Pittsburgh, USA). We thank Rubén Martínez (Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco, Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina), Fernando Novas (Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina), the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, the Museo Padre Molina, and the Province of Santa Cruz for permitting, customs, and insurance. We are grateful to members of the paleontology laboratories of the above institutions for their assistance, especially Zachary Boles, Aja Carter, George Keighton, Emma Fowler, Elena Schroeter, and Paul Ullmann (all Drexel University), Russell Christoforetti and Daniel Pickering (both Carnegie Museum of Natural History), and Jason Poole (The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University). This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (EAR Award 0603805 to KJL and DGE Award 1002809 to KKV), Drexel and Rowan university post-doctoral fellowships (KKV), and the generosity of Adam Schran (Philadelphia, USA). We thank Stephen Brusatte (Univeristy of Edinburgh, UK) for editorial assistance, and Phil Mannion (Imperial College London, UK) and Stephen Poropat (Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia) for helpful reviews which improved the manuscript. This research formed part of the doctoral thesis of KKV at Drexel University, which was supervised by KJL, Aleister Saunders, Sorin Siegler, and James Spotila (all Drexel University), MCL (Carnegie Museum of Natural History), and Mary Schweitzer (North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA).
Funding Information:
Portions of the research occurred at Rowan University (Glassboro, USA), Drexel University (Philadelphia, USA), The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University (Philadelphia, USA), and Carnegie Museum of Natural History (Pittsburgh, USA). We thank Rub?n Mart?nez (Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco, Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina), Fernando Novas (Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, Buenos Aires, Argentina), the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales, the Museo Padre Molina, and the Province of Santa Cruz for permitting, customs, and insurance. We are grateful to members of the paleontology laboratories of the above institutions for their assistance, especially Zachary Boles, Aja Carter, George Keighton, Emma Fowler, Elena Schroeter, and Paul Ullmann (all Drexel University), Russell Christoforetti and Daniel Pickering (both Carnegie Museum of Natural History), and Jason Poole (The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University). This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (EAR Award 0603805 to KJL and DGE Award 1002809 to KKV), Drexel and Rowan university post-doctoral fellowships (KKV), and the generosity of Adam Schran (Philadelphia, USA). We thank Stephen Brusatte (Univeristy of Edinburgh, UK) for editorial assistance, and Phil Mannion (Imperial College London, UK) and Stephen Poropat (Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia) for helpful reviews which improved the manuscript. This research formed part of the doctoral thesis of KKV at Drexel University, which was supervised by KJL, Aleister Saunders, Sorin Siegler, and James Spotila (all Drexel University), MCL (Carnegie Museum of Natural History), and Mary Schweitzer (North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA).
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2017 K.K. Voegele et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (for details please see http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Many titanosaurian dinosaurs are known only from fragmentary remains, making comparisons between taxa difficult because they often lack overlapping skeletal elements. This problem is particularly pronounced for the exceptionally large-bodied members of this sauropod clade. Dreadnoughtus schrani is a well-preserved giant titanosaurian from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian) Cerro Fortaleza Formation of southern Patagonia, Argentina. Numerous skeletal elements are known for Dreadnoughtus, including seven nearly complete dorsal vertebrae and a partial dorsal neural arch that collectively represent most of the dorsal sequence. Here we build on our previous preliminary description of these skeletal elements by providing a detailed assessment of their serial positional assignments, as well as comparisons of the dorsal vertebrae of Dreadnoughtus with those of other exceptionally large-bodied titanosaurians. Although the dorsal elements of Dreadnoughtus probably belong to two individuals, they exhibit substantial morphological variation that suggests that there is minimal, if any, positional overlap among them. Dreadnoughtus therefore preserves the second-most complete dorsal vertebral series known for a giant titanosaurian that has been described in detail, behind only that of Futalognkosaurus. The dorsal sequence of Dreadnoughtus provides valuable insight into serial variation along the vertebral column of these enormous sauropods. Such variation includes the variable presence of divided spinodiapophyseal laminae and associated spinodiapophyseal fossae. Given that dorsal vertebrae are the only elements that overlap between known remains of most giant titanosaurian taxa, the dorsal series of Dreadnoughtus provides a means to directly compare the morphologies of these sauropods. The dorsal vertebrae of Dreadnoughtus and Futalognkosaurus have dorsoventrally narrow transverse processes, unlike the condition in Puertasaurus. Further, Dreadnoughtus and Argentinosaurus have ventromedially inclined prezygapophyses, whereas Futalognkosaurus has almost horizontal prezygapophyses. The continued inclusion of new, well-represented skeletons of titanosaurians such as Dreadnoughtus in phylogenetic and functional morphological studies will aid in deciphering the interrelationships and paleobiology of Titanosauria.
AB - Many titanosaurian dinosaurs are known only from fragmentary remains, making comparisons between taxa difficult because they often lack overlapping skeletal elements. This problem is particularly pronounced for the exceptionally large-bodied members of this sauropod clade. Dreadnoughtus schrani is a well-preserved giant titanosaurian from the Upper Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian) Cerro Fortaleza Formation of southern Patagonia, Argentina. Numerous skeletal elements are known for Dreadnoughtus, including seven nearly complete dorsal vertebrae and a partial dorsal neural arch that collectively represent most of the dorsal sequence. Here we build on our previous preliminary description of these skeletal elements by providing a detailed assessment of their serial positional assignments, as well as comparisons of the dorsal vertebrae of Dreadnoughtus with those of other exceptionally large-bodied titanosaurians. Although the dorsal elements of Dreadnoughtus probably belong to two individuals, they exhibit substantial morphological variation that suggests that there is minimal, if any, positional overlap among them. Dreadnoughtus therefore preserves the second-most complete dorsal vertebral series known for a giant titanosaurian that has been described in detail, behind only that of Futalognkosaurus. The dorsal sequence of Dreadnoughtus provides valuable insight into serial variation along the vertebral column of these enormous sauropods. Such variation includes the variable presence of divided spinodiapophyseal laminae and associated spinodiapophyseal fossae. Given that dorsal vertebrae are the only elements that overlap between known remains of most giant titanosaurian taxa, the dorsal series of Dreadnoughtus provides a means to directly compare the morphologies of these sauropods. The dorsal vertebrae of Dreadnoughtus and Futalognkosaurus have dorsoventrally narrow transverse processes, unlike the condition in Puertasaurus. Further, Dreadnoughtus and Argentinosaurus have ventromedially inclined prezygapophyses, whereas Futalognkosaurus has almost horizontal prezygapophyses. The continued inclusion of new, well-represented skeletons of titanosaurians such as Dreadnoughtus in phylogenetic and functional morphological studies will aid in deciphering the interrelationships and paleobiology of Titanosauria.
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U2 - 10.4202/APP.00391.2017
DO - 10.4202/APP.00391.2017
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85078535681
VL - 62
SP - 667
EP - 681
JO - Acta Palaeontologica Polonica
JF - Acta Palaeontologica Polonica
SN - 0567-7920
ER -