Lusotitan
Name: Lusotitan
(Lusitania titan).
Phonetic: Lu-so-tie-tan.
Named By: Oct�vio Mateus & Miguel Telles
Antunes - 2003.
Synonyms: Brachiosaurus atalaiensis.
Classification: Chordata, Reptilia, Dinosauria,
Saurischia, Sauropodomorpha, Sauropoda, Brachiosauridae.
Species: L. atalaiensis (type).
Diet: Herbivore.
Size: Estimated up to 25 meters long.
Known locations: Portugal - Lourinh� Formation.
Time period: Tithonian of the Jurassic.
Fossil representation: Partial post cranial remains
mainly of vertebrae and some elements of the limb bones. No skull is
so far known.
The
first fossils of Lusotitan were found in 1947,
and named in 1957
as a species of Brachiosaurus
by Albert-F�lix de Lapparent and Georges
Zbyszewski. In 2003 Oct�vio Mateus & Miguel Telles
Antunes renamed the fossils as Lusotitan
atalaiensis on the basis that
the differences were greater than what was to be expected at a species
level. What bones are known indicate that Lusotitan
was a
brachiosaurid sauropod,
and even though the skull is not known it is
a reasonable proposition that it was similar to the skulls of other
members of the this group.
Lusotitan
is not the only dinosaur once thought to be restricted to North America
to be later discovered in Portugal. Remains of Stegosaurus
have also been
found in Portugal which further reinforces the idea that there was a
land bridge connection between Western Europe and North America back
towards the end of the Jurassic period.
Further reading
- Dinosaurs of Portugal. - Comptes Rendus Palevol 2:77-95 - M. T.
Antunes & O. Mateus - 2003.
- Osteology of the Late Jurassic Portuguese sauropod dinosaur Lusotitan
atalaiensis (Macronaria) and the evolutionary
history of basal
titanosauriforms. - Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 1-109. -
P. D. Mannion, P. Upchurch, R. N. Barnes & O. Mateus - 2013
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