Limaysaurus

Taxobox
name = "Limaysaurus"
status = Fossil
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Chordata
superordo = Dinosauria
subordo = Sauropodomorpha
superfamilia = Diplodocoidea
familia = Rebbachisauridae
genus = "Limaysaurus"
species = "L. tessonei"
binomial = "Limaysaurus tessonei"
binomial_authority = Salgado et al., 2004

"Limaysaurus" was a rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of northwestern Patagonia, and includes a single species, "L. tessonei", which was originally referred to the genus "Rebbachisaurus" ("R. tessonei" of Calvo and Salgado, 1995). The holotype and additional material referred "Limaysaurus" was found in 1988 by Lieto F. Tessone (hereby the origin of the species name), and afterwards collected from the Puesto Quiroga Member of the Lohan Cura Formation at Cerro Aguada del León in the south-central part of Neuquén Province, Patagonia, Argentina, between 1995 and 2002. These beds appear to date from the Aptian-Albian interval.

A cladistic analysis of macronarian sauropods (Salgado et. al, 2004; Fig. 6) demonstrated close affinities between "Limaysaurus", "Rebbachisaurus", and "Nigersaurus". The Family Rebbachisauridae is a basal clade within the Diplodocimorpha, and their remains have been found in Cretaceous-age rocks in Europe, South America, and Africa.

References

*Calvo, J. O. and Salgado, L. 1995. "Rebbachisaurus tessonei" sp. nov. A new sauropod from the Albian-Cenomanian of Argentina; new evidence on the origin of the Diplodocidae. Gaia 11:13-33.
*Salgado, L., Garrido, A., Cocca, S. E., and Cocca, J. R. 2004. Lower Cretaceous rebbachisaurid sauropods from Cerro Aguada Del León, Neuquén Province, northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 24(4):903-912, December 2004.