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Lirainosaurinae

Díez Díaz et al., 2018 Type genus Lirainosaurus

Its genera lived 83.6–66.0 million years ago Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Lirainosaurinae is a subfamily of lithostrotian titanosaur sauropods known from the Late Cretaceous of Europe, spanning roughly the late Campanian to the early Maastrichtian. It groups a set of European titanosaurs, defined as the common ancestor of Lirainosaurus and Ampelosaurus and all of its descendants, with Atsinganosaurus among them (Díez Díaz and colleagues, 2018) and Garrigatitan added later (Díez Díaz and colleagues, 2021). Its members are generally small- to medium-sized and gracile forms recovered from France and Spain, distinguished by details of their teeth, vertebrae, and osteoderms. The subfamily's broader position among titanosaurs remains unsettled; Carballido and colleagues (2022) read the results of Díez Díaz and colleagues as placing it early within Colossosauria, closer to Lognkosauria than to Saltasaurinae.

Under dispute

The higher placement of Lirainosaurinae is unsettled and weakly supported. The analyses that erected and expanded it (Díez Díaz and colleagues, 2018, 2021) recover it within Lithostrotia without resolving deeper nodes, explicitly moving Lirainosaurus away from an earlier position close to Saltasauridae. Later work scatters its members across Lithostrotia: Vila and colleagues (2022) do not recover the subfamily, placing most Ibero-Armorican titanosaurs in Opisthocoelicaudiinae and Atsinganosaurus with South American taxa such as Argentinosaurus and Patagotitan; Carballido and colleagues (2022), reviewing earlier results, consider it possibly an early colossosaur; and Díez Díaz and colleagues (2025) recover the subfamily only under one weighting scheme (as a clade just outside Saltasauridae) and not under another, with Ampelosaurus flagged as possibly chimeric. It is placed conservatively at Lithostrotia, the least-inclusive node consistent with all of these hypotheses.

Diagnosis

  1. Slender, high-crowned teeth with a low slenderness index relative to other titanosaurs
  2. Anterior caudal vertebrae with dorsoventrally tall neural arches
  3. Osteoderms of relatively small size with a bulb-and-root structure
  4. Gracile limb proportions

Genera placed directly in Lirainosaurinae

  • Ampelosaurus Le Loeuff, 1995 Campanian–Maastrichtian (83.6–66.0 Ma)France
  • Atsinganosaurus Garcia et al., 2010 Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)France
  • Garrigatitan Díez Díaz et al., 2021 Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)France
  • Lirainosaurus Sanz et al., 1999 Campanian–Maastrichtian (83.6–66.0 Ma)Spain

References

  1. Díez Díaz, V.; Garcia, G.; Pereda-Suberbiola, X.; Jentgen-Ceschino, B.; Stein, K.; Godefroit, P.; Valentin, X. (2018). The titanosaurian dinosaur Atsinganosaurus velauciensis (Sauropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous of southern France. New material, phylogenetic affinities, and palaeobiogeographical implications. Cretaceous Research 91: 429-456. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2018.06.015

    Erected Lirainosaurinae; recovered within Lithostrotia, away from Saltasauridae.

    díezdíaz2018a
  2. Díez Díaz, V.; Garcia, G.; Pereda-Suberbiola, X.; Jentgen-Ceschino, B.; Stein, K.; Godefroit, P.; Valentin, X. (2021). A new titanosaur (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous of Velaux-La-Bastide Neuve (southern France). Historical Biology 33(11): 2998-3017. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/08912963.2020.1841184

    Recovered Lirainosaurinae as a monophyletic lithostrotian clade including Garrigatitan.

    díezdíaz2021a
  3. Vila, B.; Sellés, A.; Moreno-Azanza, M.; Razzolini, N. L.; Gil-Delgado, A.; Canudo, J. I.; Galobart, À. (2022). A titanosaurian sauropod with Gondwanan affinities in the latest Cretaceous of Europe. Nature Ecology & Evolution 6(3): 288-296. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. doi:10.1038/s41559-021-01651-5

    Did not recover Lirainosaurinae, placing most Ibero-Armorican titanosaurs in Opisthocoelicaudiinae and Atsinganosaurus with South American taxa near Patagotitan.

    vila2022a
  4. Díez Díaz, V.; Mannion, P. D.; Csiki-Sava, Z.; Upchurch, P. (2025). Revision of Romanian sauropod dinosaurs reveals high titanosaur diversity and body-size disparity on the latest Cretaceous Haţeg Island, with implications for titanosaurian biogeography. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 23(1). Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/14772019.2024.2441516

    Recovered Lirainosaurinae just outside Saltasauridae under implied weighting; not monophyletic under equal weights.

    díezdíaz2025a
  5. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.

    Treats Lirainosaurinae as a clade of small European titanosaurs whose placement within Titanosauria remains unresolved.

    jones2026b
  6. Carballido, J. L.; Otero, A.; Mannion, P. D.; Salgado, L.; Pérez Moreno, A. P. (2022). Titanosauria: a critical reappraisal of its systematics and the relevance of the South American record. South American Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs: Record, Diversity and Evolution 269-298. Springer International Publishing. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-95959-3_8

    Read the analyses of Díez Díaz and colleagues as placing Lirainosaurinae early within Colossosauria, closer to Lognkosauria than to Saltasaurinae.

    carballido2022a