Open Paleo

Caieiria

Silva Junior et al., 2022 kai-eye-ree-uh

Named after the Caieira locality in Minas Gerais, Brazil, where its fossils were recovered.

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

Caieiria is a genus of titanosaurian dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Serra da Galga Formation (formerly a unit of the Marília Formation) of Brazil. The type and only species is Caieiria allocaudata.

Diagnosis

  1. Caudal vertebrae with robust and dorsoventrally expanded transverse processes, almost half the centrum height
  2. Anterior caudal vertebrae with a deep postzygapophyseal centrodiapophyseal fossa expanding anteromedially on the dorsal margin of the neural arch
  3. Anteriorly extended caudal prezygapophyses with wide (dorsoventrally expanded) articular faces, about 70% of centrum length in middle caudal vertebrae
  4. Caudal neural spines lean gently anteriorly or stand nearly vertical (contrasting with posteriorly leaning spines in Baurutitan britoi)
  5. Lateral faces of centra more deeply excavated than at similar serial position in closely related taxa; deep muscular scar on lateral face of 2nd caudal vertebra

Species

Caieiria allocaudata Silva Junior et al., 2022

Type species

Means 'strange tail', referring to the unusual anatomy of the caudal vertebrae of the holotype.

Holotype
MCT 1719-R , Museu da Divisão de Geologia e Mineralogia
Material
Ten anterior to middle caudal vertebrae.
Horizon
Serra da Galga Formation, Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous , 72.2–66.0 million years ago
Locality
Caieira, Minas Gerais, Brazil

References

  1. 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 silvajunior2022a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the body length estimate.

    jones2026b
  3. 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