''Vahiny'' (meaning "traveller" in Malagasy) is an

extinct Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

of the

Maevarano Formation The Maevarano Formation is a Late Cretaceous sedimentary formation (geology), rock formation found in the Mahajanga Province of northwestern Madagascar. It is most likely Maastrichtian in age, and records a seasonal, semiarid environment with rive ...

, northwestern

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

. It contains a single species, ''Vahiny depereti''.

Description

''Vahiny'' was first described and named by

Kristina Curry Rogers Kristina "Kristi" Curry Rogers (born June 20, 1974) is an American vertebrate paleontologist and a professor in Biology and Geology at Macalester College. Her research focuses on questions of dinosaur paleobiology, bone histology, growth, and ev ...

and Jeffrey A. Wilson in

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

and the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

is ''Vahiny depereti''. It is known solely from the

located in northwestern

, together with the more common

, '' Rapetosaurus krausei''. ''Rapetosaurus'' is the most common dinosaur in its fauna and is known from hundreds of bones, including multiple partial skeletons and skulls, while other taxa are extremely rare, including ''Vahiny'' identified from a partial

braincase In human anatomy, the neurocranium, also known as the braincase, brainpan, brain-pan, or brainbox, is the upper and back part of the skull, which forms a protective case around the brain. In the human skull, the neurocranium includes the calv ...

. ''Vahiny'' is distinguished from other titanosaurs by characteristics of its braincase, including the basal tubera, basipterygoid processes, parasphenoid and cranial nerve foramina. Differences in the braincases of ''Vahiny'' and ''Rapetosaurus'' indicate that they are not closely related to one another. ''Vahiny'' is most similar to ''

Jainosaurus ''Jainosaurus'' is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur of India and wider Asia, which lived in the Maastrichtian (approximately 68 million years ago). It is thought to have been about the same size as its contemporary relative ''Isis ...

'' from the Late Cretaceous of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, and bears similarities to the South American taxa ''

Muyelensaurus ''Muyelensaurus'' (meaning "Muyelen lizard", after an indigenous name for the Colorado River in Argentina) is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina. It was more slender than other titanosaurs. Fossils h ...

'' and '' Pitekunsaurus''.

References

Titanosauria Dinosaur genera Maastrichtian dinosaurs Maevarano Formation Taxa named by Kristina Curry Rogers Taxa named by Jeffrey A. Wilson Fossil taxa described in 2014 Dinosaurs of Madagascar {{sauropodomorph-stub