Open Paleo

Pilmatueia

Coria et al., 2019 pil-mah-TU-wee-uh

Named after the Pilmatué locality in Neuquén Province, Argentina, where the fossils were discovered.

137.1–132.6 million years ago Valanginian, Early Cretaceous
Early Cretaceous stages

Pilmatueia is a genus of diplodocoid sauropods belonging to the family Dicraeosauridae that lived during the Early Cretaceous in what is now Argentina. Its type and only species is Pilmatueia faundezi. Pilmatueia was probably closely related to other South American dicraeosaurids such as Amargasaurus. Like other dicraeosaurids, Pilmatueia was relatively small for a sauropod. The vertebrae of Pilmatueia were more extensively hollowed out by air sacs than in other dicraeosaurids, which otherwise were characterized by a reduction in the air sac system compared to other sauropods. Pilmatueia dates to the Valanginian, an age of the Cretaceous period for which dinosaur faunas are poorly known.

Diagnosis

  1. Cervico-dorsal vertebrae with dorsoventrally oriented ridges on anterior surfaces of anterior centrodiapophyseal laminae
  2. Posterior dorsal vertebrae with deep fossae at bases of bifid neural spines separated by thick, low sagittal lamina
  3. Unique pair of small fossae at bases of bifid neural spines in posterior dorsal region (absent in Dicraeosaurus and Amargasaurus)
  4. Mid- and posterior cervical vertebrae with bifid ventral keels connecting posterolaterally to ventrolateral edges of centra

Species

Pilmatueia faundezi Coria et al., 2019

Type species

Named for Ramón Faúndez, manager of the Museo Municipal de Las Lajas, who supported the excavation project.

Holotype
MLL-Pv 005 sensu Coria 2019 , Museo Municipal de Las Lajas
Material
Almost complete posterior dorsal vertebra.
Notes
Coria and colleagues (2020) gave the same catalog number for the holotype of the carcharodontosaurid Lajasvenator ascheriae, collected from the same locality and formation. Windholz and colleagues (2022) restate the number for this vertebra.
Horizon
Mulichinco Formation, Valanginian, Early Cretaceous , 137.1–132.6 million years ago
Locality
Pilmatué, Neuquén, Argentina

Notable specimens

  • MLL-Pv 010

    Museo Municipal de Las Lajas complementary

    A referred partial skeleton preserving cervical and dorsal vertebrae, ribs, a caudal vertebra, and incomplete scapulae, supplying major anatomy absent from the single-vertebra holotype and paratype, including the scapula whose distinctive medial acromial ridge is unknown in other dicraeosaurids.

    Windholz et al. (2022)

References

  1. Windholz, G. J.; Coria, R. A.; Bellardini, F.; Baiano, M. A.; Pino, D.; Ortega, F.; Currie, P. J. (2022). On a dicraeosaurid specimen from the Mulichinco Formation (Valanginian, Neuquén Basin) of Argentina and phylogenetic relationships of the South American dicraeosaurids (Sauropoda, Diplodocoidea). Comptes Rendus Palevol 21(45): 991-1019. windholz2022a
  2. Coria, R. A.; Windholz, G. J.; Ortega, F.; Currie, P. J. (2019). A new dicraeosaurid sauropod from the Lower Cretaceous (Mulichinco Formation, Valanginian, Neuquén Basin) of Argentina. Cretaceous Research 93: 33-48. Elsevier BV. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2018.08.019 coria2019a
  3. Coria, R. A.; Currie, P. J.; Ortega, F.; Baiano, M. A. (2020). An Early Cretaceous, medium-sized carcharodontosaurid theropod (Dinosauria, Saurischia) from the Mulichinco Formation (upper Valanginian), Neuquén Province, Patagonia, Argentina. Cretaceous Research 111. Elsevier BV. doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2019.104319

    Names Lajasvenator ascheriae on a holotype carrying the same catalog number as this one.

    coria2020a
  4. Jones, B. (2026). The Princeton Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs: Sauropods. Princeton University Press.

    Source of the mass and hip height estimates, and the appearance features.

    jones2026b