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Rebbachisaurinae

Bonaparte, 1997 Type genus Rebbachisaurus

Its genera lived 125.8–93.9 million years ago Early Cretaceous–Late Cretaceous
Early Cretaceous and Late Cretaceous stages

Rebbachisaurinae is a subfamily of rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaurs, one of the two branches of the clade Khebbashia alongside Limaysaurinae. It groups forms more closely related to Rebbachisaurus than to Limaysaurus, a largely Euro-African assemblage that includes Nigersaurus, Demandasaurus, and Tataouinea and ranged across South America, Africa, and Europe during the Cretaceous. Like other rebbachisaurids, these sauropods lacked the divided cervical neural spines of their diplodocid and dicraeosaurid relatives, and they bore distinctive teeth with asymmetrical enamel and low-angle internal wear facets. Some members, most notably Nigersaurus, developed dental batteries reminiscent of those in hadrosaurs and ceratopsians, an unusual feeding adaptation for a sauropod. As rebbachisaurids, they were among the last surviving diplodocoids, persisting alongside the titanosaurs until relatively late in the Cretaceous.

Diagnosis

  1. Deep centroprezygapophyseal fossa on the middle and posterior dorsal vertebrae
  2. Divided centropostzygapophyseal lamina on the middle and posterior dorsal neural arches
  3. Anterior caudal vertebrae with a triangular lateral expansion of the neural spine

Genera placed directly in Rebbachisaurinae

  • Demandasaurus Torcida Fernández-Baldor et al., 2011 Barremian–Aptian (125.8–113.2 Ma)Spain
  • Nigersaurus Sereno et al., 1999 Aptian–Albian (121.4–100.5 Ma)Niger
  • Rebbachisaurus Lavocat, 1954 Cenomanian (100.5–93.9 Ma)Morocco
  • Tataouinea Fanti et al., 2013 Albian (113.2–100.5 Ma)Tunisia

References

  1. Bonaparte, J. F. (1997). Rayososaurus agrioensis Bonaparte 1995. Ameghiniana 34: 116.

    Suggested a new sauropod clade, Rebbachisauridae, for Rebbachisaurus; the subfamily takes its authorship from it by coordination, and so priority over Nigersaurinae (Wilson and Allain, 2015).

    bonaparte1997a
  2. Wilson, J. A.; Allain, R. (2015). Osteology of Rebbachisaurus garasbae Lavocat, 1954, a diplodocoid (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the early Late Cretaceous-aged Kem Kem beds of southeastern Morocco. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 35(4): e1000701. doi:10.1080/02724634.2014.1000701

    Formally defined Rebbachisaurinae and treated Nigersaurinae as a junior synonym.

    wilson2015a