''Ligabuesaurus'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of somphospondylan sauropod

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

from the Early Cretaceous that lived in what is now

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 ...

. The

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specime ...

, ''Ligabuesaurus leanzai'', was described by Jose Bonaparte, Gonzalez Riga, and Sebastián Apesteguía in 2006, based on a partial skeleton with skull,

holotype A holotype is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism, known to have been used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of sever ...

MCF-PHV-233. José F. Bonaparte, Bernardo J. González Riga and Sebastián Apesteguía 2006. ''Ligabuesaurus leanzai'' gen. et sp. nov. (Dinosauria, Sauropoda), a new titanosaur from the Lohan Cura Formation (Aptian, Lower Cretaceous) of Neuquén, Patagonia, Argentina. Cretaceous Research 27(3): 364–376. The generic name, ''Ligabuesaurus'', honors

Giancarlo Ligabue Giancarlo Ligabue (30 October 1931 – 25 January 2015) was an Italian paleontologist, scholar, politician and businessman. Born in Venice, Ligabue graduated in Economics at the Ca' Foscari University of Venice and in Geology at la Sorbonne, and ...

, while the specific name, ''leanzai'', honors the geologist Dr. Héctor A. Leanza, who discovered the skeleton in the Lohan Cura Formation. In 2022, a second skeleton was referred, specimen MCF-PHV-228.Bellardini F, Coria RA, Pino DA, Windholz GJ, Baiano MA, Martinelli AG (2022). "Osteology and phylogenetic relationships of ''Ligabuesaurus leanzai'' (Dinosauria: Sauropoda) from the Early Cretaceous of the Neuquén Basin, Patagonia, Argentina". ''Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society'' A third skeleton was recovered but not referred due to a lack of overlapping material. The three skeletons were excavated between 1998 and 2000.

References

Macronarians Early Cretaceous dinosaurs of South America Albian life Aptian life Cretaceous Argentina Fossils of Argentina Fossil taxa described in 2006 Taxa named by José Bonaparte {{Sauropodomorph-stub