Oceanotitan (meaning "ocean giant") is a genus of sauropod dinosaur known from the Upper Jurassic (latest Kimmeridgian stage, about 149 million years ago) Lourinha Formation of Portugal. It is represented by a single specimen consisting of several tail vertebrae and appendicular bones. It contains one species, Oceanotitan dantasi. Oceanotitan is classified as possibly one of the earliest members of the Somphospondyli, a group of sauropods that includes the titanosaurs.[1]
| Oceanotitan Temporal range: Late Jurassic,
| |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Clade: | †Macronaria |
| Clade: | †Camarasauromorpha |
| Clade: | †Titanosauriformes |
| Genus: | †Oceanotitan Mocho, Moyo-Torres & Ortega, 2019 |
| Species: | †O. dantasi
|
| Binomial name | |
| †Oceanotitan dantasi Mocho, Moyo-Torres & Ortega, 2019
| |
Discovery and naming
editThe holotype and only specimen of Oceanotitan, SHN 181, is stored at the Sociedade de História Natural, in Torres Vedras, Portugal. It was discovered at the coastal cliffs of Praia de Valmitão in Lourinhã, by a private collector who donated his collection to the municipality of Torres Vedras. The rocks that it was found in correspond to the Praia da Amoreira-Porto Novo Member of the Lourinha Formation, dating to the latest Kimmeridgian stage of the Late Jurassic, about 149 Ma. Its type locality is just a few meters north of where the holotype of Lusovenator was collected.[1][2]
Oceanotitan was initially described in a 2016 doctoral thesis[3] and, in 2017, was reported as an indeterminate macronarian while still in preparation.[4] It was formally described in 2019 by Pedro Mocho, the author of the thesis, and colleagues. The generic name Oceanotitan ("ocean giant") derives its name from oceanus, the Latin word for ocean, since it was found at the base of a cliff overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, and the giant Titans from Greek mythology. The specific name dantasi honors the Portuguese paleontologist Pedro Dantas, who was a major contributor to Portuguese vertebrate paleontology towards the end of the 20th century.[1]
Description
editOceanotitan possesses unique features that separate it from all other macronarians, which are: a sagittal groove on the top of the first caudal vertebral neural spines; lateral depressions on the edges of the anterior and middle caudal vertebral neural spines while being dorsally connected in the posterior-most ones; and an elliptical concavity on the bottom of the scapular blade, near the acromion process.[1]
Classification
editIn its initial description, Oceanotitan was considered a definite titanosauriform and a possible somphospondylan, the latter placement supported by one of the two phylogenetic analyses conducted in the paper.[1] In the 2024 description of the somphospondylan Garumbatitan, Oceanotitan was included in the phylogenetic analysis. A modified cladogram of the analysis is shown below.[5]
| Macronaria |
| ||||||||||||
Paleoecology
editThe Praia da Amoreira-Porto Novo Member of the Lourinha Formation, from where Oceanotitan is known, was deposited in a river system, but not a marine environment, based on the species of palynomorph found there.[6] Its flora and fauna are similar to the Morrison Formation in the United States, and the Tendaguru Formation in Tanzania.[7] Oceanotitan lived alongside species of the predatory theropods Ceratosaurus, Compsognathus, Lourinhanosaurus, Torvosaurus, and an indeterminate species of abelisaurid, the sauropods Lourinhasaurus, Lusotitan, Zby and an indeterminate species of diplodocid, the stegosaur Miragaia, and the ornithopod Hypsilophodon.[6]
References
edit- ^ a b c d e Mocho, Pedro; Royo-Torres, Rafael; Ortega, Francisco (2019). "A new macronarian sauropod from the Upper Jurassic of Portugal". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. e1578782. doi:10.1080/02724634.2019.1578782.
- ^ Malafaia, Elisabete; Mocho, Pedro; Escaso, Fernando; Ortega, Francisco (2020-01-02). "A new carcharodontosaurian theropod from the Lusitanian Basin: evidence of allosauroid sympatry in the European Late Jurassic". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 40 (1): e1768106. doi:10.1080/02724634.2020.1768106. ISSN 0272-4634.
- ^ Lopes, Mocho (2016-02-15). Evolutionary History of Upper Jurassic Sauropods from the Lusitanian Basin (Portugal) (Doctoral thesis). Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
- ^ Mocho, P; Royo-Torres, R; Escaso, F; Malafaia, E; de Miguel Chaves, C; Narváez, I; Pérez-García, A; Pimentel, N; Silva, Bc; Ortega, F (2017). "Upper Jurassic sauropod record in the Lusitanian Basin (Portugal): Geographical and lithostratigraphical distribution". Palaeontologia Electronica. doi:10.26879/662. ISSN 1094-8074.
- ^ Mocho, Pedro; Escaso, Fernando; Gasulla, José M; Galobart, Àngel; Poza, Begoña; Santos-Cubedo, Andrés; Sanz, José L; Ortega, Francisco (2024-05-02). "New sauropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of Morella (Spain) provides new insights on the evolutionary history of Iberian somphospondylan titanosauriforms". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 201 (1): 214–268. doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad124. ISSN 0024-4082.
- ^ a b Mateus, O.; Dinis, J.; Cunha, P. P. (2017-09-30). "The Lourinhã Formation: the Upper Jurassic to lower most Cretaceous of the Lusitanian Basin, Portugal – landscapes where dinosaurs walked" (PDF). Ciências da Terra - Earth Sciences Journal. 19 (1): 75–97. doi:10.21695/cterra/esj.v19i1.355. ISSN 0254-055X.
- ^ Mateus, O. (2006). "Late Jurassic dinosaurs from the Morrison Formation (USA), the Lourinha and Alcobaça formations (Portugal), and the Tendaguru Beds (Tanzania): a comparison". In Foster, J.; Lucas, S.G. (eds.). Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 36. Albuquerque, New Mexico: New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.
 | This Sauropodomorph-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |