A New Titanosaurian Braincase from the Cretaceous "Lo Hueco" Locality in Spain Sheds Light on Neuroanatomical Evolution within Titanosauria.

ABSTRACT: Despite continuous improvements, our knowledge of the neurocranial anatomy of sauropod dinosaurs as a whole is still poor, which is especially true for titanosaurians even though their postcranial remains are common in many Upper Cretaceous sites worldwide. Here we describe a braincase from the uppermost Cretaceous locality of ''Lo Hueco" in Spain that is one of the most complete titanosaurian braincases found so far in Europe. Although the titanosaurian Ampelosaurus sp. is known from the same locality, this specimen is clearly a distinct taxon and presents a number of occipital characters found in Antarctosaurus and Jainosaurus, which are approximately coeval taxa from southern Gondwana. The specimen was subjected to X-ray computed tomographic (CT) scanning, allowing the generation of 3D

SUBMITTER: Knoll F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4596832 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature