Reassessment of Aeolosaurus maximus, a titanosaur dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Southeastern Brazil

Abstract

Aeolosaurus is a late Cretaceous Titanosaur genus with two species discovered in Argentina and one in Brazil. Although the allocation of the Argentinean Aeolosaurus seems unequivocal, that is not the case for the Brazilian species Aeolosaurus maximus since several authors questioned its positioning into this genus, based on both anatomical and phylogenetic data. The revision of the diagnosis of Ae. maximus, with the proposition of a new autapomorphy, corroborates the anatomical uniqueness and our phylogenetic analysis stresses that the relation of Ae. maximus to the Argentinean Aeolosaurus is uncertain. Based upon that, we propose a new genus, Arrudatitan, to accommodate the Brazilian taxon.