A new sauropod dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of Tunisia with extreme avian-like pneumatization

Federico Fanti (), Andrea Cau, Mohsen Hassine and Michela Contessi
Additional contact information
Federico Fanti: Geologiche e Ambientali, Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna
Andrea Cau: Museo Geologico Giovanni Capellini
Mohsen Hassine: Office National Des Mines, Service Patrimoine Géologique, 24 Rue 8601, La Charguia, 2035 Tunis, Tunisia
Michela Contessi: Geologiche e Ambientali, Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna

Nature Communications, 2013, vol. 4, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract Recent interpretations of the postcranial anatomy of sauropod dinosaurs differ about pneumatic features supporting an avian-like ventilatory system; the most conservative workers reject most postcranial pneumatizations as being unambiguous evidence of abdominal air sacs. Here we describe the first articulated dinosaur skeleton from Tunisia and refer it to a new rebbachisaurid sauropod, Tataouinea hannibalis gen. et sp. nov. The Tunisian specimen shows a complex pattern of caudosacral and pelvic pneumatization—including the first report of an ischial pneumatic foramen among Dinosauria—strongly supporting the presence of abdominal air sacs. Character optimization among Rebbachisauridae indicates that in the caudal vertebrae, pneumatization of the neural arches preceded that of the centra; in the pelvis, pneumatization of the bones adjacent to the sacrum preceded that of more distal elements. Tataouinea was more closely related to European nigersaurines than to otherwise Gondwanan rebbachisaurids; this supports an Afro-European route for rebbachisaurid dispersal.

Date: 2013
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms3080 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:4:y:2013:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms3080

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms3080

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().