Padillasaurus

Carballido et al., 2015 puh-DEE-yuh-SAWR-us

Named for Carlos Bernardo Padilla, founder of the Centro de Investigaciones Paleontológicas in Villa de Leyva, Colombia, combined with Greek 'sauros' meaning 'lizard'.

125.8–121.4 million years ago Barremian, Early Cretaceous

Early Cretaceous stages

Padillasaurus is an extinct genus of titanosauriform sauropod known from the Early Cretaceous (Barremian stage) Paja Formation in Colombia. It contains a single species, Padillasaurus leivaensis, known only from a single partial axial skeleton. Initially described as a brachiosaurid, it was considered to be the first South American brachiosaurid ever discovered and named. Before its discovery, the only known brachiosaurid material on the continent was very fragmentary and from the Jurassic period. However, a more recent study finds it to be a basal somphospondylan.

Under dispute

Padillasaurus was originally described as a brachiosaurid (Carballido and colleagues, 2015) but subsequent analyses recover it as a basal non-titanosaurian somphospondylan, a placement later analyses repeat (Mannion and colleagues, 2017; Poropat and colleagues, 2023; Mayer and colleagues, 2026).

Diagnosis

First and second caudal vertebrae with high and dorsally directed prezygodiapophyseal laminae that converge with centroprezygapophyseal laminae
Anterior caudal vertebrae with weakly laterally expanded transverse processes
First caudal vertebra with divided transverse process, dorsal section posterodorsally directed in first two caudals

Species

Padillasaurus leivaensis Carballido et al., 2015

Type species

Named for Villa de Leyva, the Colombian town near which the holotype vertebrae were discovered.

Holotype: JACVM 0001 , Junta de Acción Comunal de la Vereda de Monquirá
Material: Isolated dorsal centrum; three articulated vertebrae (last presacral and two anterior-most sacral); 10 articulated vertebrae (posterior-most two sacral and anterior-most eight caudal)
Horizon: middle Paja Formation, Barremian, Early Cretaceous , 125.8–121.4 million years ago
Locality: La Tordolla, Villa de Leiva, Boyacá Department, Colombia

References

Carballido, J. L.; Pol, D.; Parra Ruge, M. L.; Padilla Bernal, S.; Páramo-Fonseca, M. E.; Etayo-Serna, F. (2015). A new Early Cretaceous brachiosaurid (Dinosauria, Neosauropoda) from northwestern Gondwana (Villa de Leiva, Colombia). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 35(5). Informa UK Limited. doi:10.1080/02724634.2015.980505
Named Padillasaurus and recovered it as a brachiosaurid.
carballido2015a
Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.
Source of the hip height estimate.
jones2026b
Mannion, P. D.; Allain, R.; Moine, O. (2017). The earliest known titanosauriform sauropod dinosaur and the evolution of Brachiosauridae. PeerJ 5: e3217. PeerJ. doi:10.7717/peerj.3217
Titanosauriform evolution study recovered Padillasaurus as a basal non-titanosaurian somphospondylan.
mannion2017a
Poropat, S. F.; Mannion, P. D.; Rigby, S. L.; Duncan, R. J.; Pentland, A. H.; Bevitt, J. J.; Sloan, T.; Elliott, D. A. (2023). A nearly complete skull of the sauropod dinosaur Diamantinasaurus matildae from the Upper Cretaceous Winton Formation of Australia and implications for the early evolution of titanosaurs. Royal Society Open Science 10(4): 221618. doi:10.1098/rsos.221618
Recovered Padillasaurus as a non-titanosaurian somphospondylan.
poropat2023a
Mayer, E. L.; Silva Junior, J. C. G.; Kerber, L.; Navarro, B. A.; Bandeira, K. L. N.; Cisneros, J. C.; Sousa, E. P.; Pereira, A. A.; Medeiros, M. A.; Lindoso, R. M.; Cavalcanti Neto, F. P.; Ghilardi, A. M.; Aureliano, T.; Godoy, P. L.; Ferreira, G. S.; Langer, M. C. (2026). A new titanosauriform with European affinities in the Early Cretaceous of Brazil: insights on Somphospondyli phylogeny, histology and biogeography. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology 24: 2601579. Taylor & Francis. doi:10.1080/14772019.2025.2601579
Recovered Padillasaurus as the sister of Chubutisaurus.
mayer2026a