First sauropod bones from Italy offer new insights on the radiation of Titanosauria between Africa and Europe |
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| Institution: | 1. Museo di Storia Naturale di Milano, Corso Venezia 55, Milano 20121 Italy;2. 160 rue Pierre Valdo, Lyon 69005, France;3. Mostra Permanente di Geo-Paleontologia, Parco Regionale del Monte Subasio, Cà Piombino, Assisi 06081, Italy;4. Dipartimento di Scienze Biologiche, Geologiche ed Ambientali, Università di Bologna, Via Zamboni 67, Bologna 40126, Italy;5. Museo Geologico e Paleontologico “Giovanni Capellini”, Via Zamboni 63, Bologna 40126, Italy;6. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, “Sapienza” Università di Roma, Piazzale Aldo Moro 5, Roma 00185, Italy;1. Laboratorio de Anatomía Comparada y Evolución de los Vertebrados, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”, Av. Ángel Gallardo 470, C1405DJR Buenos Aires, Argentina;2. Fundación de Historia Natural “Félix de Azara”, Universidad Maimónides, V. Virasoro 732, 1405 Buenos Aires, Argentina;3. CONICET, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Argentina;4. Instituto Antártico Argentino, Cerrito 1248, C1010AAZ Buenos Aires, Argentina;1. CONICET, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas, Argentina;2. Museo Municipal “Ernesto Bachmann”, Dr. Natali S/N, Villa El Chocón, 8311, Neuquén, Argentina;3. Instituto de Investigación en Paleobiología y Geología, Universidad Nacional de Río Negro, Museo Carlos Ameghino, Belgrano 1700, Paraje Pichi Ruca (predio Marabunta), Cipolletti, 8300, Río Negro, Argentina;4. Laboratorio de Anatomía Comparada y Evolución de los Vertebrados, Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales “Bernardino Rivadavia”, Av. Ángel Gallardo 470, C1405DJR, Buenos Aires, Argentina |
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| Abstract: | Here we describe the first sauropod skeletal remains from the Italian peninsula that also represent the earliest record of titanosaurs in Southern Europe. Scattered bones, including an almost complete anterior caudal vertebra, were found in Cretaceous (Aptian–Albian) marine deposits, some 50 km East of Rome. The vertebra shows a bizarre and perhaps unique orientation of the zygapophyseal articular facets that renders their interpretation problematic. Phylogenetic retrofitting tests support the placement of the Italian titanosaur among basal lithostrotians. Palaeobiogeographic analysis based on the resulting phyletic relationships suggests an Afro-Eurasian route for the ancestors of the Italian titanosaur, a scenario compatible with the palaeogeographic evolution of the Italian microplates during the Cretaceous. Together with previously recorded titanosaurian-like ichnites from a Cenomanian locality in Latium, this new find suggests a quite long emersion for the Apenninic carbonate platform. We suggest that the Italian titanosaur was member of a population that crossed the western Tethys Sea through a “filtering bridge” composed of a chain of ephemeral islands and peninsulae, known as Periadriatic (Adria) carbonate platforms, that connected sporadically Africa and Europe since the Early Cretaceous. |
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| Keywords: | Sauropoda Titanosauria Early Cretaceous Aptian–Albian Italy Palaeobiogeography |
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