New contributions to the phylogenetic position of the sauropod Galvesaurus herreroifrom the late Kimmeridgian-early Tithonian (Jurassic) of Teruel (Spain)

Abstract

Galvesaurus herreroi is a sauropod from the Villar del Arzobispo Formation (late Kimmeridgian-early Tithonian), from the municipality of Galve (Teruel). Its phylogenetic relations have been long debated, so we carried out a phylogenetic analysis, using a new data matrix recently published by Carballido et al. (2017). The characters of Galvesaurus were coded on the basis of the redescription of the published remains and the description of two unpublished fossils: a right coracoid and a fragment of the right pubis. The results of the analysis suggest the inclusion of Galvesaurus in the clade Titanosauriformes, as a sister taxon to Lusotitan, these two taxa form part of the Brachiosauridae clade. Likewise, a stratigraphic study was undertaken, placing the Galvesaurus site in the lower part of the Villar del Arzobispo Formation, thus assigning the sauropod a late Kimmeridgian-early Tithonian age.

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

“…Latest Jurassic sauropod faunas in western Europe were rather different from those of western North America. Both macronarians [64,[282][283][284] and turiasaurians [285][286][287][288][289][290] were abundant and diverse, but diplodocoids were a minor component of the fauna, represented by a single diplodocid taxon [291,292] but no rebbachisaurids or dicraeosaurids. European earliest Cretaceous sauropod faunas appear to lack many of the forms that were present during the latest Jurassic, with no evidence for camarasaurid macronarians or flagellicaudatan diplodocoids.…”

New data on sauropod palaeobiodiversity at the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition of Spain (Burgos)

“…4). The taxa in question were: the turiasaurians Losillasaurus and Turiasaurus from the Tithonian-Berriasian of Spain (Casanovas et al 2001;Royo-Torres et al 2006) and Zby from the Kimmeridgian of Portugal (Mateus et al 2014); the basal macronarians Lourinhasaurus from the upper Kimmeridgian-lower Tithonian of Portugal (Mocho et al 2014) and Aragosaurus from the Berriasian of Spain (Sanz et al 1987;Canudo et al 2012;Aurell et al 2016;Royo-Torres et al 2017); the brachiosaurids Lusotitan from the Tithonian of Portugal (Antunes and Mateus, 2003;Mannion et al 2013) and Galvesaurus from the Kimmeridgian of Spain (Barco et al 2005;Barco, 2009;Pérez-Pueyo et al 2019); and the basal titanosauriform assigned to cf. Duriatitan humerocristatus (Mocho et al 2017).…”

“…Galvesaurus is a taxon that has been placed in various phylogenetic positions (Royo-Torres et al 2006;Barco 2009;Mannion et al 2013). Recently, however, it has been placed among basal Titanosauriformes, being included within Brachiosauridae (Pérez-Pueyo et al 2019). The Galvesaurus humeri (Fig.…”

“…MDS-VPCR, 214 shares various characters with Titanosauriformes not titanosaurs, such as the gracility of the humerus, the prominent humeral head, and the distal part of the deltopectoral crest situated in the medial part of the shaft (Janensch 1961;Tidwell et al 1999;Bonaparte et al 2006;Harris 2006;Royo-Torres et al 2017;Mannion et al 2017). By the same token, MDS-VPCR, 214 has characters that it shares with Brachiosauridae, such as the elliptical section of the shaft, the straight lateral edge of the shaft, and the high gracility values (Taylor 2009;Tidwell et al 1999;Royo-Torres et al 2017;Mannion et al 2013Mannion et al , 2017Pérez-Pueyo et al 2019). Therefore MDS-VPCR, 214 is possibly a brachiosaurid titanosauriform, probably a basal taxon.…”