''Ligabuesaurus'' is a genus of

somphospondylan Somphospondyli is an extinct clade of titanosauriform sauropods that lived from the Late Jurassic until the end of the Late Cretaceous, comprising all titanosauriforms more closely related to Titanosauria proper than Brachiosauridae. The remain ...

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 bo ...

dinosaur from the

Early Cretaceous The Early Cretaceous ( geochronological name) or the Lower Cretaceous (chronostratigraphic name), is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous. It is usually considered to stretch from 145 Ma to 100.5 Ma. Geology Pro ...

that lived in what is now Argentina. The type species, ''Ligabuesaurus leanzai'', was described by

Jose Bonaparte Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. The name was popular during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods. * Jose ben Abin * Jose ben Akabya *Jose the Galile ...

, Gonzalez Riga, and Sebastián Apesteguía in 2006, based on a partial skeleton with skull, holotype MCF-PHV-233.

José F. Bonaparte José is a predominantly Spanish and Portuguese form of the given name Joseph. While spelled alike, this name is pronounced differently in each language: Spanish ; Portuguese (or ). In French, the name ''José'', pronounced , is an old vernacul ...

, Bernardo J. González Riga and Sebastián Apesteguía 2006. ''Ligabuesaurus leanzai'' gen. et sp. nov. (Dinosauria, Sauropoda), a new titanosaur from the Lohan Cura Formation (Aptian, Lower Cretaceous) of Neuquén, Patagonia, Argentina. Cretaceous Research 27(3): 364–376. The generic name, ''Ligabuesaurus'', honors

Giancarlo Ligabue Giancarlo Ligabue (30 October 1931 – 25 January 2015) was an Italian paleontologist, scholar, politician and businessman. Born in Venice, Ligabue graduated in Economics at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice and in Geology at la Sorbonne, a ...

, while the

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

, ''leanzai'', honors the geologist Dr. Héctor A. Leanza, who discovered the skeleton in the

Lohan Cura Formation The Lohan Cura Formation is a geologic formation with outcrops in the Argentine provinces of Río Negro, Neuquén, and Mendoza. It is the second oldest Cretaceous terrestrial formation in the Neuquén Basin. The Lohan Cura Formation unconformabl ...

. In 2022, a second skeleton was referred, specimen MCF-PHV-228.Bellardini F, Coria RA, Pino DA, Windholz GJ, Baiano MA, Martinelli AG (2022). "Osteology and phylogenetic relationships of ''Ligabuesaurus leanzai'' (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the Early Cretaceous of the Neuquén Basin, Patagonia, Argentina". ''Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society'' A third skeleton was recovered but not referred due to a lack of overlapping material. The three skeletons were excavated between 1998 and 2000.

References

Macronarians Early Cretaceous dinosaurs of South America Albian life Aptian life Cretaceous Argentina Fossils of Argentina Fossil taxa described in 2006 Taxa named by José Bonaparte {{Sauropodomorph-stub