Open Paleo

Chadititan

Agnolín et al., 2025 CHAH-dee-TIE-tuhn

From Spanish chadi ('salt' or referring to the salt flats of the Salitral Moreno region) + Greek Titan (a giant from mythology), meaning 'titan of the salt'.

83.6–72.2 million years ago Campanian, Late Cretaceous
Late Cretaceous stages

Chadititan is an extinct genus of titanosaurian dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous (Campanian) Anacleto Formation of Argentina. The genus contains a single species, C. calvoi, known from several fragmentary skeletons. Chadititan is characterized by its small size compared to related taxa and its particularly gracile limbs.

Diagnosis

  1. Gracile humerus with very deep anterior excavation having well-defined dorsal and lateral margins
  2. Homogeneously procoelous caudal vertebrae throughout the caudal series
  3. Anterior caudals with neural arch continuous with the anterior margin of the vertebral centrum (not separated by a notch)
  4. Caudal vertebrae elongate and transversely compressed with width/length index of 0.4-0.5 in anterior caudals
  5. Femoral head dorsomedially projected, far from the level of the greater trochanter

Species

Chadititan calvoi Agnolín et al., 2025

Type species

Named for Argentine paleontologist Jorge O. Calvo, who coined the taxonomic group Rinconsauria, to which this taxon belongs.

Holotype
MPCN-PV 1034 , Museo Patagónico de Ciencias Naturales
Material
Nine caudal vertebrae, partial humeri and ulnae, radius fragment, partial pubis, femur ends, tibia and fibula ends, indeterminate metapodials
Horizon
Anacleto Formation, Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–72.2 million years ago
Locality
Marín family Farm, Río Negro, Argentina

References

  1. Agnolín, F. L.; Motta, M.; García Marsà, J. A.; Aranciaga Rolando, M.; Álvarez-Herrera, G.; Chimento, N.; Rozadilla, S.; Brissón Egli, F.; Cerroni, M.; Panzeri, K.; Bogan, S.; Casadío, S.; Sterli, J.; Miquel, S.; Martínez, S.; Perez, L.; Pol, D.; Novas, F. (2025). New fossiliferous locality from the Anacleto Formation (Late Cretaceous, Campanian) from northern Patagonia, with the description of a new titanosaur. Revista del Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales 26(2): 217-259. doi:10.22179/REVMACN.26.885 agnolín2025a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the hip height estimate.

    jones2026b