¿saurópodos Rebbaquisáuridos en Asia? Una Re-Evaluación De La Posición Filogenética De Dharatitanis Kingi Del Cretácico Tardío De Uzbekistán

Abstract

An isolated vertebra from the Late Cretaceous of Uzbekistan (Asia), previously interpreted as a titanosaur anterior caudal, was recently assigned as the holotype and unique specimen of a new rebbachisaurid taxon, Dzharatitanis kingi. This record would drastically impact both biogeographical and chronological aspects of the group. As some of the characters identified for such systematic assignment seem to have been incorrectly scored and/or have a more widespread distribution amongst Neosauropoda, we revised and discussed them in depth to verify the putative rebbachisaurid affinities of this taxon. The phylogenetic analyses carried out recovered Dzharatitanis as a titanosaur sauropod, most probably related to Lognkosauria. The extra steps needed to force Dzharatitanis within Rebbachisauridae confirms that its titanosaur affinity is not solely the most parsimonious hypothesis but also is well supported when the incompleteness of the material is considered. Given this new phylogenetic position, a new modified diagnosis is provided here. Although more complete evidence is needed, the reinterpretation of Dzharatitanis as a titanosaur with lognkosaurian affinities suggests a wider biogeographic distribution of this group of colossosaurs during the Cretaceous. At present, there is no reliable evidence to assume that rebbachisaurid sauropods have inhabited Asia.

Sauropod dinosaur teeth from the lower Upper Cretaceous Winton Formation of Queensland, Australia and the global record of early titanosauriforms

“…Many narrow-crowned teeth (SI often greater than 5.0) attributed to titanosaurs have been recovered in Uzbekistan from uppermost Albian/lower Cenomanian deposits, as well as the middle-upper Turonian Bissekty Formation [93,418,419]. A caudal vertebra from the Bissekty Formation, originally described as titanosaurian [419], was reinterpreted as rebbachisaurid and named Dzharatitanis [420], but even more recently transferred back to Titanosauria by Lerzo et al [421]. However, the latter authors made no comparisons with contemporaneous Asian sauropods, such as Dongyangosaurus (see [131,422]), the caudal vertebrae of which show a striking similarity to that of Dzharatitanis, as originally noted by Sues et al [419].…”