Tehuelchesaurus

Tehuelchesaurus (Template:IPAc-en) is a genus of dinosaur. It is named in honor of the Tehuelche people, native to the Argentinian province of Chubut, where it was first found.

Description

File:Tehuelchesaurus escamas tuberculadas pequeñas.png

Skin impressions of Tehuelchesaurus. Skin patch with small tuberculated scales. (Scale bar: 1 cm).

It was a moderately large (possibly long) cetiosaur-like sauropod found in the Late Jurassic (Tithonian) Cañadon Calcareo Formation at Fernandez Estancia, Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina; known from the holotype MPEF-PV 1125 (Museo Paleontologico Egidio Fergulio), a 50% complete skeleton, lacking a skull, but including dorsal, sacral and caudal vertebrae, parts of the forelimbs and hindlimbs, parts of the shoulder girdle and pelvis, some rib fragments, and skin impressions.

Tehuelchesaurus is most similar to Omeisaurus from the Middle Jurassic of China, but is distinguished by the shape of the coracoid, the stouter radius and ulna, and the shapes of the pubis and ischium; all the dorsal vertebrae have pseudopleurocoels (deep depressions in the centra but without internal chambers) and opisthocoelous centra, unlike in Barapasaurus and Patagosaurus. The length of the entire neck and tail are not known, but based on other proportions (humerus long; femur long; scapula long; ischium long; ilium ; pubis long), Tehuelchesaurus was probably about long. It was named by Rich, Vickers-Rich, Gimenez, Cuneo, Puerta & Vacca in 1999. The type species is Tehuelchesaurus benitezii (Template:IPAc-en), named after Aldo Benitez, who discovered the holotype.

Further reading

• T. H. Rich, P. Vickers-Rich, O. Gimenez, R. Cúneo, P. Puerta and R. Vacca. 1999. A new sauropod dinosaur from Chubut province, Argentina. Proceedings of the Second Gondwanan Dinosaur Symposium, National Science Museum Monographs 15:61-84