''Arrudatitan'' (meaning "
Arruda's giant") is an extinct genus of
titanosaur
Titanosaurs (or titanosaurians; members of the group Titanosauria) were a diverse group of sauropod dinosaurs, including genera from all seven continents. The titanosaurs were the last surviving group of long-necked sauropods, with taxa still thr ...
sauropod
Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their b ...
dinosaur known from the
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...
(
Campanian
The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campa ...
-
Maastrichtian
The Maastrichtian ( ) is, in the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) geologic timescale, the latest age (geology), age (uppermost stage (stratigraphy), stage) of the Late Cretaceous epoch (geology), Epoch or Upper Cretaceous series (s ...
)-aged
Adamantina Formation
The Adamantina Formation is a geological Formation (geology), formation in the Bauru Basin of western São Paulo (state), São Paulo state in southeastern Brazil.
Its strata date back to the Late Cretaceous epoch of the Cretaceous, Cretaceous Per ...
of
Brazil
Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...
. The type species, ''A. maximus'', was named and described in 2011 as a species of ''
Aeolosaurus
''Aeolosaurus'' (; "Aeolus' lizard") is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period (geology), Period of what is now South America. Like most sauropods, it would have been a quadrupedal herbivore with a long neck an ...
'',
but was separated into its own genus in 2021.
It was relatively gracile for a titanosaur.
Discovery and naming
The holotype, MPMA 12-0001-97, which includes two partial posterior cervicals, fragments of several dorsals, parts of nine caudals, seven partial cervical ribs, twelve partial dorsal ribs, eight chevrons, a fragmentary scapula and arm bones, the left and partial right femur, the left ischium, and fragments; with other specimens known, such as the isolated middle caudal vertebra MPP 248,
was discovered in 1997 by Ademir Frare and his 12-year-old nephew Luiz Augusto dos Santos Frare in a field in
Cândido Rodrigues
Cândido Rodrigues is a municipality in the state of São Paulo in Brazil. The population is 2,799 (2020 est.) in an area of 70.9 km2. The elevation is 610 m.
Media
In telecommunications, the city was served by Companhia Telefônica Brasil ...
. They notified
palaeontologist
Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...
Antônio Celso de Arruda Campos and the holotype was collected between 1997 and 1998 by staff of the
Museu de Paleontologia de Monte Alto and it was first mentioned in scientific literature by Santucci and Bertini (2001).
They noted that
crocodylomorph
Crocodylomorpha is a group of pseudosuchian archosaurs that includes the crocodilians and their extinct relatives. They were the only members of Pseudosuchia to survive the end-Triassic extinction. Extinct crocodylomorphs were considerably mor ...
and
theropod
Theropoda (; from ancient Greek , (''therion'') "wild beast"; , (''pous, podos'') "foot"">wiktionary:ποδός"> (''pous, podos'') "foot" is one of the three major groups (clades) of dinosaurs, alongside Ornithischia and Sauropodom ...
teeth were found near the holotype, but no bite marks were present.
In 2009,
Fernando Novas
Fernando Emilio Novas (born 1960) is an Argentine paleontologist working for the Comparative Anatomy Department of the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina. briefly noted on the holotype, noting its size.
MPMA 12-0001-97 was initially assigned to ''Aeolosaurus'' in 2011, when the species ''Aeolosaurus maximus'' was created by Santucci & De Arruda-Campos.
As early as Martinelli ''et al.'' (2011), published shortly before ''Aeolosaurus maximus'' was described, the caudal vertebra of the holotype of ''Aeolosaurus maximus'' was seen as an indeterminate
aeolosaurin distinct from ''Aeolosaurus'', with Bandeira ''et al.'' (2016)
referring to the species as "''A''"''. maximus'' throughout their paper describing the
titanosaurian
Titanosaurs (or titanosaurians; members of the group Titanosauria) were a diverse group of Sauropoda, sauropod dinosaurs, including genera from all seven continents. The titanosaurs were the last surviving group of long-necked sauropods, with tax ...
sauropod
Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their b ...
''
Austroposeidon magnificus'' due to ''Aeolosaurus maximus'' being sufficiently different from ''Aeolosaurus'' but had not yet been placed within a different genus; and subsequent analyses, such as Silva ''et al.'' (2019)
and Hechenleitner ''et al.'' (2020),
found that ''Aeolosaurus maximus'' did not belong in the ''Aeolosaurus'' genus and so the new genus ''Arrudatitan'' was erected in 2021 by Silva ''et al.''.
Description

''Arrudatitan'' grew up to when fully grown, based on the size of the
holotype
A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...
.
[ Novas, F. E. (2009). ''The Age of Dinosaurs in South America''. Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, Indiana.] The
femur
The femur (; : femurs or femora ), or thigh bone is the only long bone, bone in the thigh — the region of the lower limb between the hip and the knee. In many quadrupeds, four-legged animals the femur is the upper bone of the hindleg.
The Femo ...
length of ''Arrudatitan'' is .
Classification
The species ''Aeolosaurus maximus'' was named by Santucci and De Arruda-Campos in 2011 for titanosaur remains recovered in the Adamantina Formation of Brazil. However, subsequent cladistic analyses, such as those by Silva ''et al.'' in 2019
and Hechenleitner ''et al.'' in 2020
have considered ''A. maximus'' to be outside ''Aeolosaurus'', the former analysis finding it to be sister to
Rinconsauria
Rinconsauria is an extinct clade of titanosaurian sauropods known from the late Cretaceous period of Argentina. All members of this clade are fairly small compared to the largest titanosaurs, at less than around long. The membership of Rinconsau ...
and the latter finding it to be closely related to a clade consisting of ''
Punatitan'' and the other two ''Aeolosaurus'' species. In light of this, Silva ''et al.'' transferred it to the new genus ''Arrudatitan'', after Brazilian paleontologist Antonio Celso de Arruda Campos.
A cladogram of the phylogenetic analysis performed by Silva ''et al.'', 2021 is shown below:
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q22104075
Titanosauria
Dinosaur genera
Maastrichtian dinosaurs
Adamantina Formation
Dinosaurs of Brazil
Fossil taxa described in 2021