title: A New Giant Titanosauria (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the Late Cretaceous Bauru Group, Brazil.
abstract: Titanosaurian dinosaurs include some of the largest land-living animals that ever existed, and most were discovered in Cretaceous deposits of Argentina. Here we describe the first Brazilian gigantic titanosaur, Austroposeidon magnificus gen. et sp. nov., from the Late Cretaceous Presidente Prudente Formation (Bauru Group, Paraná Basin), São Paulo State, southeast Brazil. The size of this animal is estimated around 25 meters. It consists of a partial vertebral column composed by the last two cervical and the first dorsal vertebrae, all fairly complete and incomplete portions of at least one sacral and seven dorsal elements. The new species displays four autapomorphies: robust and tall centropostzygapophyseal laminae (cpol) in the last cervical vertebrae; last cervical vertebra bearing the posterior centrodiapophyseal lamina (pcdl) bifurcated; first dorsal vertebra with the anterior and posterior centrodiapophyseal laminae (acdl/pcdl) curved ventrolaterally, and the diapophysis reaching the dorsal margin of the centrum; posterior dorsal vertebra bearing forked spinoprezygapophyseal laminae (sprl). The phylogenetic analysis presented here reveals that Austroposeidon magnificus is the sister group of the Lognkosauria. CT scans reveal some new osteological internal features in the cervical vertebrae such as the intercalation of dense growth rings with camellae, reported for the first time in sauropods. The new taxon further shows that giant titanosaurs were also present in Brazil during the Late Cretaceous and provides new information about the evolution and internal osteological structures in the vertebrae of the Titanosauria clade.
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Sistemática e Tafonomia de Vertebrados Fósseis, Departamento de Geologia e Paleontologia, Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Quinta da Boa Vista s/n, 20940-040, São Cristóvão, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Kamila L N
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2744-8126
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Bandeira
authors.affiliation: Petróleo Brasileiro S.A. (PETROBRAS), Avenida República do Chile, 330, -17° andar, Centro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Felipe
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Medeiros Simbras
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Sistemática e Tafonomia de Vertebrados Fósseis, Departamento de Geologia e Paleontologia, Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Quinta da Boa Vista s/n, 20940-040, São Cristóvão, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.|Universidade Estácio de Sá, Rua André Rocha, 838, Taquara, 22710-560, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Elaine
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Batista Machado
authors.affiliation: Museu de Ciências da Terra, CPRM. Av. Pasteur, 404, Urca, 22290-240, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Diogenes
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: de Almeida Campos
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal Rural de Pernambuco, Departamento de Biologia. Rua Dom Manuel de Medeiros s/n, Dois Irmãos, 52171-900, Recife, PE, Brazil.
authors.forename: Gustavo R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Laboratório de Sistemática e Tafonomia de Vertebrados Fósseis, Departamento de Geologia e Paleontologia, Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro. Quinta da Boa Vista s/n, 20940-040, São Cristóvão, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil.
authors.forename: Alexander W A
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Kellner
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005075:Biological Evolution; D049628:Body Size; D001938:Brazil; D025061:Dinosaurs / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000145:classification*; D005580:Fossils; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008953:Models, Anatomic; D010802:Phylogeny; D013045:Species Specificity; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed