A new dinosaur (Theropoda, Spinosauridae) from the Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Alcântara Formation, Cajual Island, Brazil

Abstract

A new spinosaurid taxon, Oxalaia quilombensis gen. et sp. nov., is described based on the anterior part of a snout and a fragment of a maxilla. These specimens were collected at the Laje do Coringa site, Late Cretaceous (Cenomanian) of the São Luis Basin. Unlike Cristatusaurus and Suchomimus, Oxalaia quilombensis lacks serrations on the teeth. The new species differs from Angaturama limai by having the anterior part of the premaxillae more expanded and by lacking a sagittal premaxillary crest. It further differs from Spinosaurus cf. S. aegyptiacus and the Algerian spinosaurid by the rounder shape of the terminal expansion. Furthermore, Oxalaia quilombensis has one functional tooth followed by two replacement teeth, a feature not previously observed in theropods. Oxalaia quilombensis appears to be more closely related to the spinosaurids found in North Africa than to the Brazilian members of this clade and thus further increases the diversity of these enigmatic predatory dinosaurs in this country.

Reptiles Extintos - Volumen en Homenaje a Zulma Gasparini

“…America (and other regions of Gondwana) has remarkably increased since the original studies of Gasparini in the 1970's and 1980's (Carvalho and Bertini, 1999;Ortega et al, 2000;Campos et al, 2001;Carvalho et al, 2004Carvalho et al, , 2005Carvalho et al, , 2011Pol and Apesteguía, 2005;Nobre and Carvalho, 2006;Andrade and Bertini, 2008;Carvalho, 2009, 2011;Kellner et al, 2009Kellner et al, , 2011aMarinho and Carvalho, 2009;Nascimento and Zaher, 2010;Montefeltro et al, 2011;Martinelli et al, 2012;Marinho et al, 2013). The new discoveries, coupled with the inclusion of both Baurusuchidae and Peirosauridae within Notosuchia in recent phylogenetic studies (e.g., Turner and Sertich, 2010;Pol et al, 2012Pol et al, , 2014, revealed a previously unsuspected diversity of Notosuchian crocodyliforms.…”

Spinosaurid Dinosaurs from the Early Cretaceous of North Africa and Europe: Fossil Record, Biogeography and Extinction

“…Fossil remains of these predators are known from many localities from the Lower Cretaceous of Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Niger, Sudan, Tanzania, Tunisia), Europe (England, Portugal, Spain), South America (Brazil), Asia (China, Laos, Thailand), and Australia (e.g., Kellner & Campos, 1996;Sereno et al, 1998;Benton et al, 2000;Buffetaut & Ouaja, 2002;Sues et al, 2002;Medeiros, 2006;Buffetaut, , 2012Hone et al, 2010;Barrett et al, 2011;Kellner et al, 2011;Allain et al, 2012;Medeiros et al, 2014;Hendrickx et al, 2016;Sales et al, 2017). Knowledge about spinosaurids has increased significantly in the last few decades as new fossil remains, including various new species, have been found in several new Gondwanan and Laurasian localities (Buffetaut & Ingavat, 1986;Sereno et al, 1998;Benson et al, 2009;Buffetaut, 2012;Allain et al, 2012;Hendrickx et al, 2016).…”

New record of abelisauroid theropods from the Bauru Group (Upper Cretaceous), São Paulo State, Brazil

“…The Brazilian record of theropods includes diverse lineages such as abelisaurids (Bertini, 1996;Bittencourt & Kellner, 2002;Kellner & Campos, 2002;Candeiro et al, 2004Candeiro et al, , 2006aNovas et al, 2008;Machado et al, 2013), spinosaurids (Martill et al, 1996;Kellner & Campos, 1999;Kellner et al, 2011), megaraptorans (Méndez et al, 2012;Martinelli et al, 2013), and maniraptorans (Novas et al, 2005;Machado et al, 2008), including some isolated teeth (Bertini et al, 1997;Bertini & Franco-Rosas, 2001;Franco-Rosas, 2002) with questioned assignment (Canale et al, 2007). Isolated teeth attributed to carcharodontosaurids (Silva & Kellner, 1999;Candeiro et al, 2004Candeiro et al, , 2006b) are currently considered to correspond to abelisaurids (Canale et al, 2009;Souza et al, 2011).…”