A new genus and species of titanosaur has been identified from the fossilized remains found in the Hațeg Basin in Transylvania, western Romania.
The newly-identified species lived on Hațeg Island, a large subtropical landmass in Tethys Ocean, some 70 million years ago (Cretaceous period).
Dubbed Uriash kadici, the animal belongs to Lithostrotia, a group of titanosaurian dinosaurs that includes many armored species.
“Titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs include the largest animals to ever walk on land, with gigantic species that exceeded 60 tons,” said Dr. Verónica Díez Díaz, a paleontologist with the Museum für Naturkunde at the Leibniz-Institut für Evolutions- und Biodiversitätsforschung, and her colleagues.
“By the late Early Cretaceous, titanosaurs had achieved a near-global distribution, with their remains known from every landmass in the Late Cretaceous.”
“Despite a rich and global fossil record, titanosaurian evolutionary relationships are poorly known, limiting our understanding of this diverse clade of megaherbivores (the only group of sauropods to survive into the latest Cretaceous).”
“In particular, European titanosaurs have largely been neglected in phylogenetic analyses,” they said.
“This neglect mainly stems from the historical predominance of Gondwanan species, as well as the scarcity and incompleteness of Laurasian remains, especially from Europe.”
“However, this has begun to change through a combination of reassessments of existing species and specimens, as well as the discovery of new remains, including articulated, partial skeletons.”
“As such, the latest Cretaceous European sauropod fossil record, in particular, is starting to reveal a rich evolutionary history, with increasingly recognized importance for biogeographical scenarios and growing incorporation into phylogenetic analyses.”
The holotype of Uriash kadici was found in the Densuș-Ciula Formation of Hațeg Basin in Romania.
The dinosaur is estimated…
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