May 25, 2016

Ornithopods are the least known dinosaurs within the Upper Cretaceous record of Argentina. For this reason every new record is very important to know their evolution in South America. Here, we describe a new remain of an indeterminate ornithopod recovered in the Petrobrasaurus quarry of the Puesto Hernández area, northeastern Neuquén province (Argentina), late Coniacian–early Santonian in age. MAU-Pv-PH-458 is the northernmost bone record of an ornithopod in Argentina. This is a fragmentary neural arch from the middle section of the dorsal series of similar size to Macrogryphosaurus gondwanicus. MAU-Pv-PH-458 has typical ornithopod characters such as a lateromedial narrow neural spine and transverse processes dorsoposteriorly to posteriorly oriented. It shares with Macrogryphosaurus the presence of a deep channel between the bases of the postzygapophysis, which is a continuation of the channel that separates the postzygapophyses in posterior view. MAU-Pv-PH-458 increases the ornithopod record from the Plottier Formation.

Penélope Cruzado-Caballero, Leonardo S. Filippi, Ariel H. Méndez, Alberto C. Garrido & Rubén D. Juárez Valieri (2016)
New record of ornithopod dinosaur from the Plottier Formation (Upper Cretaceous), Patagonia, Argentina.
Annales de Paléontologie (advance online publication)
doi:10.1016/j.annpal.2016.02.003