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Saltasauroidea

Powell, 1992 Type genus Saltasaurus

Its genera lived 121.4–66.0 million years ago Early Cretaceous–Late Cretaceous
Early Cretaceous and Late Cretaceous stages

Saltasauroidea is a superfamily of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs, defined by Carballido and colleagues (2022) as all taxa closer to Saltasaurus than to Patagotitan. This definition splits the derived titanosaur group Eutitanosauria roughly in half, making Saltasauroidea the sister branch to the inversely defined Colossosauria. França and colleagues (2016), who introduced the name, applied it to a clade uniting the aeolosaurins and the heavily armored, often dwarfed saltasaurids, along with intermediate genera such as Baurutitan, Diamantinasaurus, and Isisaurus, and defined it as the most inclusive clade containing Saltasaurus but not Nemegtosaurus. Its members account for much of the terminal-Cretaceous titanosaur diversity across both Gondwana and Laurasia.

Diagnosis

  1. Strongly procoelous caudal vertebrae throughout the tail
  2. Osteoderms present in many members
  3. Posterior dorsal vertebrae with well-developed lateral pneumatic foramina
  4. Reduced and block-like carpus and manus

Clades within Saltasauroidea

Genera placed directly in Saltasauroidea

  • Arackar Rubilar-Rogers et al., 2021 Campanian–Maastrichtian (83.6–66.0 Ma)Chile
  • Bustingorrytitan Simón & Salgado, 2023 Cenomanian (100.5–93.9 Ma)Argentina
  • Isisaurus Jain & Bandyopadhyay, 1997 Maastrichtian (72.2–66.0 Ma)India
  • Mansourasaurus Sallam et al., 2018 Campanian (83.6–72.2 Ma)Egyptunder dispute
  • Nullotitan Novas et al., 2019 Maastrichtian (72.2–66.0 Ma)Argentinaincertae sedisunder dispute
  • Pellegrinisaurus Salgado, 1996 Campanian–Maastrichtian (83.6–66.0 Ma)Argentina
  • Rapetosaurus Curry Rogers & Forster, 2001 Maastrichtian (72.2–66.0 Ma)Madagascar
  • Tapuiasaurus Zaher et al., 2011 Aptian (121.4–113.2 Ma)Brazilincertae sedisunder dispute
  • Titanomachya Pérez-Moreno et al., 2025 Maastrichtian (72.2–66.0 Ma)Argentina
  • Udelartitan Soto et al., 2024 Cenomanian–Santonian (100.5–83.6 Ma)Uruguay
  • Yeneen Filippi et al., 2026 Santonian (85.7–83.6 Ma)Argentina

References

  1. Powell, J. E. (1992). Osteologia de Saltasaurus loricatus (Sauropoda - Titanosauridae) del Cretácico Superior del noroeste Argentino [Osteology of Saltasaurus loricatus (Sauropoda - Titanosauridae) from the Upper Cretaceous of northwest Argentina]. Los Dinosaurios y su Entorno Biótico: Actas del Segundo Curso de Paleontología en Cuenca (Sanz, J. L.; Buscalioni, A. D., eds.) 165-230. Instituto "Juan de Valdés", Cuenca.

    Origin of the family-group name (Saltasaurinae), and by coordination the superfamily Saltasauroidea.

    powell1992a
  2. França, M. A. G.; Marsola, J. C. de A.; Riff, D.; Hsiou, A. S.; Langer, M. C. (2016). New lower jaw and teeth referred to Maxakalisaurus topai (Titanosauria: Aeolosaurini) and their implications for the phylogeny of titanosaurid sauropods. PeerJ 4: e2054. doi:10.7717/peerj.2054

    Introduced the name Saltasauroidea and its branch-based definition.

    frança2016a
  3. 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

    Defined Saltasauroidea as all taxa closer to Saltasaurus than to Patagotitan, the Saltasaurus-line stem of Eutitanosauria.

    carballido2022a