Comahuesaurus (meaning "Comahue lizard") is a genus of sauropod dinosaur of the family Rebbachisauridae. It was found in the Lohan Cura Formation, in Argentina and lived during the Early Cretaceous, Aptian to Albian. The type species is C. windhauseni, named by Carballido and colleagues in 2012.[1] It had originally been assigned to Limaysaurus by Salgado et al. (2004),[2] but was later assigned its own genus based on the presence of diagnostic characters in the caudal centra, pubis and ischium.[1]
| Comahuesaurus | |
|---|---|
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| Skeletal reconstruction of C. windhauseni based on several specimens such as, but not limited to, the holotype and others belonging to a bonebed | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Superfamily: | †Diplodocoidea |
| Family: | †Rebbachisauridae |
| Genus: | †Comahuesaurus Carballido et al. 2012 |
| Species: | †C. windhauseni
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| Binomial name | |
| †Comahuesaurus windhauseni Carballido et al. 2012
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Comahuesaurus is known from abundant material compared to other rebbachisaurids; 37 caudal vertebrae, three fragmentary dorsal vertebrae and multiple appendicular elements, including a right humerus, pubis, ischium and a 113 cm long left femur. In their phylogenetic analysis, Carballido et al. (2012) placed Comahuesaurus in an intermediate position between basal rebbachisaurids such as Histriasaurus and the derived clade formed by subfamilies Rebbachisaurinae and Limaysaurinae.[1]
It shares with more derived rebbachisaurids a reduced hyposphene-hypantrum system, but hadn't yet completely lost said structure; that change would happen at some further point in the evolution of the clade, as it is so far only known to be fully absent in limaysaurines.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d Carballido, José Luis; Salgado, Leonardo; Pol, Diego; Canudo, José Ignacio; Garrido, Alberto (2012). "A new basal rebbachisaurid (Sauropoda, Diplodocoidea) from the Early Cretaceous of the Neuquén Basin; evolution and biogeography of the group". Historical Biology. 24 (6): 631–654. Bibcode:2012HBio...24..631C. doi:10.1080/08912963.2012.672416. S2CID 130423764.
- ^ Salgado, L; Garrido, AC; Cocca, JR (2004). "Lower Cretaceous rebbachisaurid sauropods from the Cerro Aguada León (Lohan Cura Formation), Neuquén Province, Northwestern Patagonia, Argentina". J. Vertebr. Paleontol. 24 (4): 903–912. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2004)024[0903:LCRSFC]2.0.CO;2.
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