New record of titanosaurian (Dinosauria: Sauropodomorpha) osteoderms from the Upper Cretaceous of North Patagonia

Abstract

The idea that titanosaurs had osteoderms was proposed in the late nineteenth century by Depéret. However, this idea was given little credence by other researchers until 1980 when unequivocal evidence of armoured titanosaurs was reported. Since then, many discoveries of titanosaurian osteoderms have been made worldwide. In this work, seven osteoderms are described from the Allen Formation (upper Campanian–lower Maastrichtian), Salitral Moreno locality, Río Negro Province, Argentina. Among the described osteoderms it was possible to recognize three morphologies (keeled, ellipsoidal and cylindrical), with the first of these being most prevalent. Although the osteoderms from Salitral Moreno resemble osteoderms found in other parts of the world, no osteoderms of a similar morphotype are known from this locality, or from Lago Pellegrini or Cinco Saltos.