Lusotitan

Lusotitan; Temporal range: Late Jurassic, 152 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
	Holotype humerus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	†Sauropodomorpha
Clade:	†Sauropoda
Clade:	†Macronaria
Family:	†Brachiosauridae
Genus:	†Lusotitan; Antunes & Mateus, 2003
Species:	†L. atalaiensis
Binomial name
	†Lusotitan atalaiensis; (Lapparent & Zbyszewski, 1957 [originally Brachiosaurus])
Synonyms
	Brachiosaurus atalaiensis Lapparent & Zbyszewski, 1957; Galvesaurus herreroi? Barco et al., 2005; Galveosaurus herreroi? Sánchez Hernández, 2005;

Lusotitan is a genus of herbivorous brachiosaurid sauropod dinosaur from the Late Jurassic of Portugal and possibly Spain.

Discovery and naming

In 1947 Manuel de Matos, a member of the Geological Survey of Portugal, discovered large sauropod fossils in the Portuguese Lourinhã Formation that date back to the Tithonian stage of the Late Jurassic period.^[1] In 1957 Albert-Félix de Lapparent and Georges Zbyszewski named the remains as a new species of Brachiosaurus: Brachiosaurus atalaiensis.^[2] The specific name referred to the site Atalaia. In 2003 Octávio Mateus and Miguel Telles Antunes named it as a separate genus: Lusotitan. The type species is Lusotitan atalaiensis. The generic name is derived from Luso, the Latin name for an inhabitant of Lusitania, and from the Greek word "Titan", a mythological giant.^[1]

The finds consisted of a partial skeleton lacking the skull and individual vertebrae uncovered in several locations. De Lapparent did not assign a holotype. In 2003 Mateus chose the skeleton as the lectotype. Its bones have the inventory numbers MIGM 4798, 4801–10, 4938, 4944, 4950, 4952, 4958, 4964–6, 4981–2, 4985, 8807, and 8793-5. These remains include 28 vertebrae and elements of the appendicular skeleton.

The lectotype was re-described by Mannion and colleagues in 2013.^[3] In 2017, Mocho, Royo-Torres and Ortega suggested that Galvesaurus or Galveosaurus from the Late Jurassic of Spain might represent a junior synonym of this taxon.^[4] However, a 2019 description of new material of Galvesaurus by Perez-Pueyo et al. identified phylogenetically informative characters to distinguish it from Lusotitan which was recovered as its sister taxon.^[5]

Description

Lusotitan was a large sauropod, reaching 21 m (69 ft) in length and 30 tonnes (33 short tons) in body mass.^[6] It had long forearms with the humerus and femur measuring 2.05 m (6.7 ft) and 2 m (6.6 ft) in length, respectively.^[7]

Paleoecology

Hypothetical reconstruction of *Lusotitan*

The Lourinhã Formation of western Portugal was likely to be formed during the Kimmeridgian or Tithonian ages of the Late Jurassic period. The area is a coastal region with a strong marine influence. Its flora and fauna are similar to the Morrison Formation in the United States, and the Tendaguru Formation in Tanzania. Lusotitan is the largest dinosaur that has been discovered in the area. Lusotitan lived alongside species of the predatory theropods Allosaurus (A. europaeus), Ceratosaurus, Lourinhanosaurus, and Torvosaurus, the ankylosaurian Dracopelta, the sauropods Bothriospondylus, Lourinhasaurus, and Zby, and the stegosaurs Dacentrurus and Miragaia.^[7]

References

^ ^a ^b Antunes, Miguel; Mateus, Octavio (2003). "Dinosaurs of Portugal". Comptes Rendus Palevol. 2 (1): 77–95. doi:10.1016/S1631-0683(03)00003-4.
^ A.F. de Lapparent & G. Zbyszewski, 1957, "Les dinosauriens du Portugal", Mémoires des Services Géologiques du Portugal, nouvelle série 2: 1–63
^ Mannion, Philip D.; Upchurch, Paul; Barnes, Rosie N.; Mateus, Octávio (2013). "Osteology of the Late Jurassic Portuguese sauropod dinosaur Lusotitan atalaiensis (Macronaria) and the evolutionary history of basal titanosauriforms". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 168: 98–206. doi:10.1111/zoj.12029.
^ Mocho, P.; Royo-Torres, R.; Ortega, F. (2017). "New data of the Portuguese brachiosaurid Lusotitan atalaiensis (Sobral Formation, Upper Jurassic)". Historical Biology: An International Journal of Paleobiology. 29 (6): 789–817. Bibcode:2017HBio...29..789M. doi:10.1080/08912963.2016.1247447. S2CID 89037768.
^ Pérez-Pueyo, M.; Moreno-Azanza, M.; Barco, J.L.; Canudo, J.I. (2019). "New contributions to the phylogenetic position of the sauropod Galvesaurus herreroi from the late Kimmeridgian-early Tithonian (Jurassic) of Teruel (Spain)" (PDF). Boletín Geológico y Minero. 130 (3): 375–392. doi:10.21701/bolgeomin.130.3.001.
^ Paul, Gregory S. (2010). The Princeton Field Guide to Dinosaurs. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. p. 201.
^ ^a ^b Mateus, O. (2006). "Late Jurassic dinosaurs from the Morrison Formation (USA), the Lourinha and Alcobaça formations (Portugal), and the Tendaguru Beds (Tanzania): a comparison". In Foster, J.; Lucas, S.G. (eds.). Paleontology and Geology of the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation. New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin 36. Albuquerque, New Mexico: New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.