Open Paleo

Baurutitan

Kellner et al., 2005 BOH-roo-TIE-tuhn

From Bauru (the Bauru Group, the geological unit in Brazil where fossils were found) + Greek Titan meaning 'giant'; overall meaning 'Bauru giant'. No explicit etymology provided in the article.

72.2–66.0 million years ago Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Baurutitan is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now Brazil. The type species, Baurutitan britoi, was described in 2005 by Kellner and colleagues, although the fossil remains had already been discovered in 1957. Baurutitan is classified as a lithostrotian titanosaur, and is distinguished from related genera based on its distinctive caudal vertebrae. This South American dinosaur was found in the Serra da Galga Formation near Uberaba, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais.

Under dispute

Placed within Aeolosaurini following Silva Junior and colleagues (2022), whose phylogenetic analysis recovers Baurutitan as an aeolosaurin; the describing paper (Kellner and colleagues, 2005) provided no cladistic analysis and regarded Baurutitan as neither a basal nor a derived (e.g., saltasaurine) titanosaur. Silva Junior and colleagues (2022) further proposed that Trigonosaurus pricei is a junior synonym of Baurutitan britoi (Baurutitan having page priority within the shared 2005 volume) and split off part of the Trigonosaurus material as Caieiria; Fronimos (2023) rejected the synonymy, citing distinct first-caudal morphology.

Diagnosis

  1. Strongly pointed laterally directed process intercepting the spinoprezygapophyseal lamina on caudal 1
  2. Anterolaterally directed spinoprezygapophyseal lamina
  3. Prezygapophyseal tuberosity on the lateral margin of the prezygapophysis of caudals 2-4, smoothing out in midcaudals
  4. Developed dorsal tuberosity on the neural arch turning into a lateral ridge in the middle caudals
  5. Neural spines in most anterior caudals (1-4) inclined posteriorly, becoming more vertical to subvertical in caudals 5-10

Species

Baurutitan britoi Kellner et al., 2005

Type species

Named for Ignácio Aureliano Machado Brito, a Brazilian paleontologist who advised the study and description of this dinosaur.

Holotype
MCT 1490-R , Museu da Divisão de Geologia e Mineralogia
Material
Last sacral vertebra articulated with a sequence of 18 caudal vertebrae, belonging to a single individual
Horizon
Serra da Galga Formation, Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 72.2–66.0 million years ago
Locality
Caieira, Minas Gerais, Brazil

References

  1. Kellner, A. W. A.; Campos, D. D. A.; Trotta, M. N. F. (2005). Description of a titanosaurid caudal series from the Bauru Group, Late Cretaceous of Brazil. Arquivos do Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro 63(3): 529-564. doi:10.5281/zenodo.13454985 kellner2005a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the mass and hip height estimates.

    jones2026b
  3. Silva Junior, J. C. G.; Martinelli, A. G.; Marinho, T. S.; da Silva, J. I.; Langer, M. C. (2022). New specimens of Baurutitan britoi and a taxonomic reassessment of the titanosaur dinosaur fauna (Sauropoda) from the Serra da Galga Formation (Late Cretaceous) of Brazil. PeerJ 10: e14333. PeerJ. doi:10.7717/peerj.14333

    Phylogenetic analysis recovers Baurutitan britoi as an aeolosaurin within Aeolosaurini.

    silvajunior2022a
  4. Fronimos, J. A. (2023). Patterns and function of pneumaticity in the vertebrae, ribs, and ilium of a titanosaur (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous of Texas. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 43(2): e2259444. doi:10.1080/02724634.2023.2259444

    Rejected the synonymy of Trigonosaurus with Baurutitan, citing distinct first-caudal vertebra morphology.

    fronimos2023a
  5. Soares, M. V. T.; Basilici, G.; Marinho, T. S.; Martinelli, A. G.; Marconato, A.; Mountney, N. P.; Colombera, L.; Mesquita, Á. F.; Vasques, J. T.; Abrantes Junior, F. R.; Ribeiro, L. C. B. (2020). Sedimentology of a distributive fluvial system: the Serra da Galga Formation, a new lithostratigraphic unit (Upper Cretaceous, Bauru Basin, Brazil). Geological Journal 56(2): 951-975. Wiley. doi:10.1002/gj.3987

    Prints the coordinate for the Price Quarry 1 site at Caieira, which Silva Junior and colleagues locate only by its distance from Peirópolis.

    soares2020a