''Baalsaurus'' (named after the dinosaur fossil site Baal in

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, which in turn is named after the ancient Phoenician god

Baal Baal (), or Baʻal, was a title and honorific meaning 'owner' or 'lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The ...

) is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

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 ...

ian

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 Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

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 ...

Neuquén Province Neuquén () is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the west of the country, at the northern end of Patagonia. It borders Mendoza Province to the north, Rio Negro Province to the southeast, and Chile to the west. It also me ...

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

, Argentina. The

type Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type, collection of values used for computations. * File type * TYPE (DOS command), a command to display contents of a file. * ...

and only known species is ''B. mansillai'', with the specific name honoring the discoverer Juan Eduardo Mansilla, a museum technician at the Geology and Paleontology Museum of the National University of Comahue. Baalsaurus reconstruction

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 ...

specimen, MUCPv-1460, is a mostly complete right

dentary In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla). The jawbone ...

that was found in rocks of the upper Portezuelo Formation. The dentary is squared-off instead of curved when viewed from above or below, with the teeth crowded into the front of the jaw, making it similar to the jaw of ''

Antarctosaurus ''Antarctosaurus'' (; meaning "southern lizard") is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period (geology), Period of what is now South America. The type species, ''Antarctosaurus wichmannianus'', and a second speci ...

'', '' Brasilotitan'', and to a lesser extent '' Bonitasaura''. The specimen is currently held at the Geology and Paleontology Museum of the National University of Comahue, Parque Natural Geo-Paleontológico Proyecto Dino, Barreales Lake.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q59871859 Titanosauria Dinosaur genera Coniacian dinosaurs Portezuelo Formation Fossil taxa described in 2018 Dinosaurs of Argentina