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Link to original content: http://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24828328/
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. 2014 May 14;9(5):e97128.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0097128. eCollection 2014.

A diplodocid sauropod survivor from the early cretaceous of South America

Pablo A Gallina  1 , Sebastián Apesteguía  1 , Alejandro Haluza  2 , Juan I Canale  3
Affiliations

A diplodocid sauropod survivor from the early cretaceous of South America

Pablo A Gallina et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Diplodocids are by far the most emblematic sauropod dinosaurs. They are part of Diplodocoidea, a vast clade whose other members are well-known from Jurassic and Cretaceous strata in Africa, Europe, North and South America. However, Diplodocids were never certainly recognized from the Cretaceous or in any other southern land mass besides Africa. Here we report a new sauropod, Leikupal laticauda gen. et sp. nov., from the early Lower Cretaceous (Bajada Colorada Formation) of Neuquén Province, Patagonia, Argentina. This taxon differs from any other sauropod by the presence of anterior caudal transverse process extremely developed with lateroventral expansions reinforced by robust dorsal and ventral bars, very robust centroprezygapophyseal lamina in anterior caudal vertebra and paired pneumatic fossae on the postzygapophyses in anterior-most caudal vertebra. The phylogenetic analyses support its position not only within Diplodocidae but also as a member of Diplodocinae, clustering together with the African form Tornieria, pushing the origin of Diplodocoidea to the Middle Jurassic or even earlier. The new discovery represents the first record of a diplodocid for South America and the stratigraphically youngest record of this clade anywhere.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Photographs and half-tone drawings of the cervical and dorsal vertebrae of Leinkupal laticauda, gen. n. sp. n. (MMCH-Pv 63).
Cervical 6? in (A) lateral and (B) posterior views. Cervical 8? in (C) lateral and (D) ventral views. Cervical 11? in (E) lateral and (F) dorsal views (reversed). Dorsal 2? in (G) lateral and (H) anterior views (reversed). Abbreviations: cprf, centroprezygapophyseal fossa; dia, diapophysis; hns, hemi neural spine; mt, median tubercle; nc, neural canal; pcdl, posterior centrodiapophyseal lamina; pf, pneumatic fossa; pocdf, postzygapophyseal centrodiapophyseal fossa; podl, postzygodiapophyseal lamina; poz, postzygapophysis; pp, parapophyses; prdl, prezygodiapophyseal lamina; prz, prezygapophysis; pvf, posteroventral flanges; sdf, spinodiapophyseal fossa. Scale bar equals 10 cm.
Figure 2
Figure 2. Photographs and half-tone drawings of the anterior caudal vertebrae of Leinkupal laticauda, gen. n. sp. n. (MMCH-Pv 63).
Caudal 1-2? in (A) lateral and (B) posterior views. Caudal 7? in (C) lateral and (D) anterior views (reversed). Abbreviations: pf, pneumatic fossa; podl, postzygodiapophyseal lamina; poz, postzygapophysis; prdl, prezygodiapophyseal lamina; prsl, prespinal lamina; prz, prezygapophysis; sprl, spinoprezygapophyseal lamina; spol, spinopostzygapophyseal lamina; tp, transverse process. Scale bar equals 10 cm.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Photographs and half-tone drawings of the mid caudal vertebrae of Leinkupal laticauda, gen. n. sp. n. (MMCH-Pv 63).
Caudal 12? in (A) lateral, (B) dorsal and (C) anterior views (reversed). Caudal 20? in (D) lateral, (E) ventral, (F) dorsal and (G) posterior views. Abbreviations: acdl, anterior centrodiapophyseal lamina; ns, neural spine; pcdl, posterior centrodiapophyseal lamina; pf, pneumatic fossa; podl, postzygodiapophyseal lamina; poz, postzygapophysis; prdl, prezygodiapophyseal lamina; prz, prezygapophysis; sprl, spinoprezygapophyseal lamina; vlc, ventral longitudinal concavity. Scale bar equals 10 cm.
Figure 4
Figure 4. Phylogenetic position of Leinkupal laticauda, gen. n. sp. n.
(A) Strict consensus tree recovered after the inclusion of Leinkupal laticauda in a published data matrix focused on Diplodocoidea relationships . (B) Most parsimonious tree recovered after the inclusion of Leinkupal laticauda in another published data matrix focused on Diplodocidae relationships . Support values (Bremer/Bootstrap) of principal nodes are in brackets.
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References

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Grants and funding

This research was supported by a grant from Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas PIP 114 201101 00314 to S. Apesteguía (http://www.conicet.gov.ar/) and The Jurassic Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

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