Titanosaur osteoderms from the Upper Cretaceous of Lo Hueco (Spain) and their implications on the armor of Laurasian titanosaurs.

ABSTRACT: Titanosaurs are the only sauropod dinosaurs known to bear a dermal armor. Their osteoderms are relatively rare finds, with few more than a hundred specimens recovered worldwide. Also, little is known about their intra-individual, intra-specific or inter-specific variability. The macrovertebrate site of Lo Hueco (Upper Cretaceous; Cuenca, Spain) has yielded several complete specimens of osteoderms, some associated with fairly articulated specimens. They are all variations of the morphotype known as bulb and root. The presence of only this morphotype in Europe, which is considered as the primitive condition among titanosaurs, seems to indicate that the known Upper Cretaceous Laurasian titanosaurs only bore these referred bulb and root osteoderms. An eliptic Fourier analysis on the outline of

SUBMITTER: Vidal D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4131861 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature