The sauropod record of Salitral Ojo del Agua: An Upper Cretaceous (Allen Formation) fossiliferous locality from northern Patagonia, Argentina

Abstract

The record of sauropods in the Upper Cretaceous of Patagonia is rich. However, there are still several blanks on this record. Here it is described a new sauropod assemblage coming from the Salitral Ojo de Agua Area, Río Negro province, northern Patagonia, Argentina (Allen Formation; Maastrichtian). Remains of indeterminate saltasaurines, aeolosaurines, as well as new specimens of the small saltasaurine Rocasaurus muniozi and the new eutitanosaur Menucocelsior arriagadai gen. et sp. nov., are described. The new eutitanosaur is represented by an incomplete caudal series and some appendicular bones that indicate that it does not belong to any previously recognized eutitanosaur clade (e.g, Colossosauria, Saltasaurinae, Aeolosaurini). The co-occurrence of several roughly coeval titanosaurs in a restricted area (as occur in Bajo de Santa Rosa, Salitral Moreno and Salitral Ojo de Agua sites) with different body plans, indicates that they probably occupied particular ecological niches and that probably competition for resources was limited, allowing the connivance of several taxa in a single locality and age. This pattern is not observed in other sites of the world. Based on these records and on the high diversity of osteoderm morphotypes recovered, it appears to be certain that palaeoecological conditions in the area were able to sustain and promote the flourishing of many species of titanosaurs.