Open Paleo

Garrigatitan

Díez Díaz et al., 2021 GARR-ih-guh-TIE-tan

Garrigue giant; named after garrigue, the type of scrubland habitat in the region of France where it was found, combined with Titan from Greek mythology

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

Garrigatitan is a genus of titanosaurian dinosaur from the late Cretaceous Period of the Grès à Reptiles Formation in France. The genus contains a single species, Garrigatitan meridionalis.

Diagnosis

  1. Hourglass-shaped humeri (proximal and distal thirds of almost the same transversal width) in anterior and posterior views
  2. Ilium with a broad rounded hollow slightly posterior to the base of the pubic peduncle
  3. Proximolateral margin of the femur only slightly medially deflected
  4. Posterior cervical vertebrae with an anteroposteriorly compressed and paddle-shaped neural spine (not wider than the centrum)
  5. Posterior cervical vertebrae with postzygapophyses widely separated and with laterally oriented articular surfaces

Species

Garrigatitan meridionalis Díez Díaz et al., 2021

Type species

From Latin 'meridionalis' meaning 'southern', referring to the discovery location in southern France.

Holotype
MMS/VBN.09.170 , Museo Municipal de Salto "José Bonaparte"
Material
Sacrum with part of the left ilium
Horizon
Argiles et Grès à Reptiles Formation, Campanian, Late Cretaceous , 83.6–72.2 million years ago
Locality
Velaux-La Bastide Neuve, Bouches-du-Rhône, France Díez Díaz and colleagues (2021) place the holotype in level B3 of the Velaux-La Bastide Neuve section, an informal level rather than a named bed, and date the horizon by the Begudian local stage.

References

  1. Díez Díaz, V.; Garcia, G.; Pereda-Suberbiola, X.; Jentgen-Ceschino, B.; Stein, K.; Godefroit, P.; Valentin, X. (2021). A new titanosaur (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous of Velaux-La-Bastide Neuve (southern France). Historical Biology 33(11): 2998-3017. Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/08912963.2020.1841184 díezdíaz2021a
  2. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the hip height estimate.

    jones2026b
  3. Díez Díaz, V.; Garcia, G.; Pereda-Suberbiola, X.; Jentgen-Ceschino, B.; Stein, K.; Godefroit, P.; Valentin, X. (2018). The titanosaurian dinosaur Atsinganosaurus velauciensis (Sauropoda) from the Upper Cretaceous of southern France. New material, phylogenetic affinities, and palaeobiogeographical implications. Cretaceous Research 91: 429-456. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2018.06.015

    Assigns Velaux-La Bastide Neuve to the Argiles et Grès à Reptiles Formation of the Aix-en-Provence Basin, which the describing paper does not name.

    díezdíaz2018a