New specimens of Saturnalia tupiniquim (Dinosauria: Sauropodomorpha): insights into intraspecific variation, rostral anatomy, and skull size

2024/12/01 by Lísie Vitória Soares Damke, Max C. Langer, Átila Augusto Stock Da‐Rosa +1 · 1 voice · 6 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Amphibian and Reptile Biology #Anatomy #Biology #Evolution and Paleontology Studies #Evolutionary biology #Intraspecific competition #Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology #Skull #Variation (astronomy) #Zoology

paper · open access · doi:10.1093/zoolinnean/zlae156

published in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 202(4) (Oxford University Press)

openalex publication_date 2024/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30

Abstract

Abstract Dinosaurs arose in the Late Triassic and diversified during the subsequent periods of the Mesozoic Era. The oldest unequivocal dinosaurs come from Carnian deposits of Brazil, Argentina, India, and Zimbabwe, with sauropodomorphs representing the bulk of this record. Saturnalia tupiniquim was described from Brazilian strata in 1999 as the first Carnian member of that group. Although several new species and specimens of coeval sauropodomorphs have been described in recent years, no new material has been formally assigned to that species. In this contribution, we describe an association of at least three partially preserved individuals of S. tupiniquim (UFSM 11660), which was excavated from the S. tupiniquim type-locality (Late Triassic of the Santa Maria Formation) and preserves cranial and postcranial elements, including the first rostrum known for the species. Assigned to S. tupiniquim according to several lines of evidence, the new specimen has a proportionally short rostrum, compared to that of coeval sauropodomorphs, providing evidence for a reduced skull in S. tupiniquim. In addition, we investigated the intraspecific variation in S. tupiniquim, highlighting the need to understand the morphological limits of such variations among the earliest dinosaurs, in order to properly explore their alpha diversity.

Citations

• The Early Evolution of Archosaurs: Relationships and the Origin of Major Clades
• Estimating morphological diversity and tempo with discrete character-taxon matrices: implementation, challenges, progress, and future directions
• Biases with the Generalized Euclidean Distance measure in disparity analyses with high levels of missing data

Cited by

• Silesaurid ( Archosauria: Dinosauriformes ) remains from the base of the Dockum Group ( Late Triassic: Otischalkian ) of Texas provide new insights to the North American record of dinosauriforms
• Osteology of the axial skeleton of Macrocollum itaquii (Dinosauria: Sauropodomorpha) and its implications for early sauropodomorph cervicalization
• Inferred presence of extraoral tissues in Triassic archosauromorphs and the evolutionary implications for the clade Sauropsida

Discussions

• Lísie V S Damke et al. (2024). “New specimens of Saturnalia tupiniquim (Dinosauria: Sauropodomorpha): insights into intraspecific variation, rostral anatomy, and skull size.” Zoological Journal of the [bsky, 0 points, 1 comments]

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