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Volgatitan (meaning "Volga giant") is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of the Ulyanovsk Oblast, Russia. The type and only species is Volgatitan simbirskiensis, known from seven caudal vertebrae from a single individual. It is the oldest known titanosaur from the northern hemisphere, and is considered important for being related to the Lognkosauria, a group known only from South America later in the Late Cretaceous.[1] It was first described in November 2018 by Russian palaeontologists Alexander Averianov and Vladimir Efimov.[1][2] It is estimated to have weighed about 17.3 metric tons (19.1 short tons).[1]
| Volgatitan Temporal range: Early Cretaceous,
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| Skeletal diagram, known material in white | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Clade: | †Macronaria |
| Clade: | †Titanosauria |
| Clade: | †Lithostrotia |
| Genus: | †Volgatitan Averianov & Efimov, 2018 |
| Species: | †V. simbirskiensis
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| Binomial name | |
| †Volgatitan simbirskiensis Averianov & Efimov, 2018
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Classification
editAverianov and Efimov recovered Volgatitan as a lithostrotian titanosaur. They found Lithostrotia to be divided into two main lineages, one containing Saltasauridae, the other containing Lognkosauria, with Volgatitan belonging to the latter. The following cladogram follows their analysis.[1]
References
edit- ^ a b c d Averianov, Alexander; Efimov, Vladimir (2018). "The oldest titanosaurian sauropod of the Northern Hemisphere". Biological Communications. 63 (6): 145–162. doi:10.21638/spbu03.2018.301. hdl:11701/15099.
- ^ "Russian scientists discover new giant herbivorous dinosaur Volgatitan". India Today. 10 December 2018. Retrieved 16 December 2018.
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