Instituto de Investigaciones en Biodiversidad y Medioambiente (CONICET-Universidad Nacional del Comahue), San Carlos de Bariloche, Río Negro, Argentina.
Museo Provincial de Ciencias Naturales "Profesor Olsacher", Zapala, Neuquén, Argentina.
PLoS One. 2021 Sep 8;16(9):e0256233. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256233. eCollection 2021.
The Late Cretaceous dinosaur record in southern South America has been improved recently; particularly with findings from Chorrillo and Cerro Fortaleza formations, both bearing ankylosaur remains, a clade that was not previously recorded in the Austral Basin. The dinosaur fauna of the type locality of Cerro Fortaleza Formation is known from -and biased to- large-sized sauropod remains and a single described taxon, the titanosaur Dreadnoughtus schrani. Here, we report the taxonomic composition of a site preserving thirteen isolated teeth and several osteoderms belonging to three dinosaur clades (Abelisauridae, Titanosauria, and Nodosauridae), and at least one clade of notosuchian crocodyliforms (Peirosauridae). They come from sediments positioned at the mid-section of the Cerro Fortaleza Formation, which is Campanian-Maastrichtian in age, adding valuable information to the abundance and biodiversity of this Cretaceous ecosystem. Since non-titanosaur dinosaur bones are almost absent in the locality, the teeth presented here provide a window onto the archosaur biodiversity of the Late Cretaceous in southern Patagonia. The nodosaurid tooth and small armor ossicles represent the first record of ankylosaurs for this stratigraphic unit. The peirosaurid material also represents the most austral record of the clade in South America.
最近，南美的晚白垩世恐龙记录得到了改善；特别是在 Chorrillo 和 Cerro Fortaleza 地层中发现了甲龙类恐龙遗骸，这个分支在澳大利亚盆地中以前没有记录过。Cerro Fortaleza 组的正型产地的恐龙群从-并且偏向于-大型蜥脚类恐龙遗骸和一个单一描述的分类单元，泰坦巨龙类恐龙无畏龙(Dreadnoughtus schrani)。在这里，我们报告了一个保存有十三个孤立牙齿和几个骨板的地点的分类组成，这些牙齿和骨板属于三个恐龙分支（阿贝力龙科、泰坦巨龙类和结节龙科），以及至少一个属于南美鳄类（地蜥鳄科）的分支。它们来自 Cerro Fortaleza 组的中段沉积层，其时代为坎潘期至马斯特里赫特期，为这个白垩纪生态系统的丰富度和生物多样性提供了有价值的信息。由于在该地点几乎没有非泰坦巨龙类恐龙骨骼，因此这里展示的牙齿为了解晚白垩世巴塔哥尼亚南部的槽齿龙类生物多样性提供了一个窗口。结节龙科的牙齿和小的装甲骨片代表了这个地层单元中甲龙类恐龙的首次记录。地蜥鳄类的材料也代表了该分支在南美洲最南部的记录。
