''Lavocatisaurus'' (meaning "

René Lavocat René Lavocat (August 24, 1909-August 9, 2007) was a French paleontologist who described several genera of African dinosaurs including the sauropod ''Rebbachisaurus'', as well as several extinct mammals such as the family Kenyamyidae. The mammal ...

's lizard") is a genus of

sauropod Sauropoda (), whose members are known as sauropods (; from '' sauro-'' + '' -pod'', 'lizard-footed'), is a clade of saurischian ('lizard-hipped') dinosaurs. Sauropods had very long necks, long tails, small heads (relative to the rest of their bo ...

in the family

Rebbachisauridae Rebbachisauridae is a family of sauropod dinosaurs known from fragmentary fossil remains from the Cretaceous of South America, Africa, North America, Europe and possibly Central Asia. Taxonomy In 1990 sauropod specialist Jack McIntosh included t ...

from the Early Cretaceous (

Aptian The Aptian is an age in the geologic timescale or a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is a subdivision of the Early or Lower Cretaceous Epoch or Series and encompasses the time from 121.4 ± 1.0 Ma to 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma (million years ago), a ...

Albian The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous Epoch/Series. Its approximate time range is 113.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 100.5 ± 0.9 M ...

)

Rayoso Formation The Rayoso Formation is a geological formation in the Neuquén Province of Argentina whose strata date back to the Aptian-Albian stages of the Early Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.Weis ...

of the

Neuquén Basin Neuquén Basin ( es, Cuenca Neuquina) is a sedimentary basin covering most of Neuquén Province in Argentina. The basin originated in the Jurassic and developed through alternating continental and marine conditions well into the Tertiary. The bas ...

, northern

Patagonia Patagonia () refers to a geographical region that encompasses the southern end of South America, governed by Argentina and Chile. The region comprises the southern section of the Andes Mountains with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and gl ...

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Description

''Lavocatisaurus'' was a medium-sized sauropod, and one of the only known dinosaurs from the

. It is known from almost all of its anatomical elements, and it is known from a few specimens including juveniles and an adult. The adult specimen is currently under preparation, and thus the described fossils come from a number of juvenile individuals. The skull was elongate and similar in shape to that of ''

Diplodocus ''Diplodocus'' (, , or ) was a genus of diplodocid sauropod dinosaurs, whose fossils were first discovered in 1877 by S. W. Williston. The generic name, coined by Othniel Charles Marsh in 1878, is a neo-Latin term derived from Greek διπ� ...

''. The skull is well preserved for the most part, and it provides further evidence that some sauropods may have had a beak-like

keratin Keratin () is one of a family of structural fibrous proteins also known as ''scleroproteins''. Alpha-keratin (α-keratin) is a type of keratin found in vertebrates. It is the key structural material making up scales, hair, nails, feathers, ho ...

ous sheath covering the anterior of the snout.

Classification

In their phylogenetic analysis Canudo ''et al.'' (2018) found ''Lavocatisaurus'' to be a basal rebbachisaurid. They resolved it in a derived position relative to other basal rebbachisaurids, as the sister group to the

Khebbashia Khebbashia is a clade of herbivorous sauropod dinosaurs belonging to the Rebbachisauridae. P. D. Mannion, P. Upchurch, D. Schwarz and O. Wings. (2019). Taxonomic affinities of the putative titanosaurs from the Late Jurassic Tendaguru Formation of ...

, the clade formed by

Rebbachisaurinae Rebbachisaurinae is a subfamily within the family Rebbachisauridae, defined to include '' Rebbachisaurus garasbae'' and exclude ''Limaysaurus tessonei''. It was first proposed as a rank by Jose Bonaparte in 1995, to include ''Rebbachisaurus''. So ...

and

Limaysaurinae Khebbashia is a clade of herbivorous sauropod dinosaurs belonging to the Rebbachisauridae. P. D. Mannion, P. Upchurch, D. Schwarz and O. Wings. (2019). Taxonomic affinities of the putative titanosaurs from the Late Jurassic Tendaguru Formation ...

References

Rebbachisaurids Albian life Aptian life Early Cretaceous dinosaurs of South America Cretaceous Argentina Fossils of Argentina Neuquén Basin Fossil taxa described in 2018 {{Sauropodomorph-stub