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Introduction
Publications
Publications (98)
Gondwanan dinosaur faunae during the 20 Myr preceding the Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K/Pg) extinction included several line-ages that were absent or poorly represented in Laurasian landmasses. Among these, the South American fossil record contains diverse abelisaurids, arguably the most successful groups of carnivorous dinosaurs from Gondwana in the Cr...
Studies on pathological fossil bones have allowed improving the knowledge of physiology and ecology, and consequently the life history of extinct organisms. Among extinct vertebrates, non-avian dinosaurs have drawn attention in terms of pathological evidence, since a wide array of fossilized lesions and diseases were noticed in these ancient organi...
Decuriasuchus quartacolonia is a middle-sized basal "rauisuchian" (Pseudosuchia, Loricata) from the Triassic beds of Brazil, whose original description was based on 10 specimens of equivalent size found in aggregation. In this contribution, we explore the osteohistology of its appendicular bones and a rib, aiming to infer growth patterns and ontoge...
"Rauisuchia" is a non-monophyletic group of quadrupedal and carnivorous pseudosuchians that inhabited the entire world during the Middle-Upper Triassic period (Anisian/Ladinian-Rhaetian). In South America, "rauisuchians" reached the largest sizes among continental carnivores. Despite their important ecological role, some aspects of their palaeobiol...
Studies on paleohistology are crucial to understand the life history of extinct
vertebrates. In this contribution we sampled apendicular bones (humerus, radius,
una, femur, tibia, fibula) of Decuriasuchus quartacolonia (MCPV10.005b;
MCNPV10.005x), a middle-sized carnivorous "rauisuchian" (~2,7m in length)
assigned to the Dinodontosaurus Assemblage...
Pterosaurs are an extinct group of Mesozoic flying reptiles, which exhibited high diversity with regard to their dentition. Although morphological features of pterosaur dentition have been described in detail in several contributions, the histology of tooth and tooth attachment tissues (i.e. periodontium) has been scarcely analysed to date for this...
In amniotes, the predominant developmental strategy underlying body size evolution is thought to be adjustments to the rate of growth rather than its duration. However, most theoretical and experimental studies supporting this axiom focus on pairwise comparisons and/or lack an explicit phylogenetic framework. We present the first large-scale phylog...
Brachytrachelopan is a dicraeosaurid sauropod that comes from the Jurassic of Argentine Patagonia. With the purpose to infer different palaeobiological traits (e.g., ontogenetic stage, growth dynamics, temporal correlation between morphological and anatomical parameters of maturation), we perform an osteohisto-logical study on different postcranial...
Abelisaurids are medium–large-sized theropod dinosaurs that were predominant in the carnivorous fauna during the Late Cretaceous of Gondwana. These predators are abundant in the Cretaceous fossil strata of Patagonia, which yield the best record for this group. In the Late Cretaceous, abelisaurids appear in almost all regions of Gondwana and in all...
We present a detailed histological study of long bones from an ontogenetic series of Mussaurus patagonicus, an early sauropodomorph from the Lower Jurassic of Argentina. Twenty long bones, including humeri, femora and fibulae, obtained from 13 individuals of different body sizes were sampled for histological analysis. In general terms, the cortical...
Notosuchia represents a highly diverse lineage of Crocodyliformes usually characterized by the presence of a heterodont dentition. Although the dental anatomy has been thoroughly analysed in some taxa, information regarding tooth microstructure and dental attachment tissue are still poorly explored. With the purpose to obtain new data regarding fee...
Although osteohistology has proven to be useful to discern several palaeobiological traits and systematics in non-avian dinosaurs, the bone microstructure of several groups (e.g., abelisaurid theropods) is still poorly documented. Here, we provide a microstructural description of different bones (a cervical epipophysis, three dorsal ribs, three gra...
Given that bone microstructure is a very important source of paleobiological information, several paleohistological studies have been conducted on sauropodomorph dinosaurs, possibly making this clade the most studied histologically. Despite these paleohistological studies on sauropodomorph dinosaurs from South America are relatively scarce in compa...
Pterosaurs were the first vertebrates to evolve powered flight. The timing of their origin is still debated, and hypotheses range from the end of the Permian Period, to the lower Mesozoic Era, and through to the Middle–Late Triassic epochs. Regardless of when they originated, the oldest records are restricted to the Upper Triassic Norian Stage in t...
Dicraeosaurid sauropods are iconically characterized by the presence of elongate hemispinous processes in presacral vertebrae. These hemispinous processes can show an extreme degree of elongation, such as in the Argentinean forms Amargasaurus cazaui, Pilmatueia faundezi and Bajadasaurus pronuspinax. These hyperelongated hemispinous processes have b...
Aetosaurs were a group of armoured pseudosuchians, recorded in most of the Upper Triassic continental deposits worldwide. Several osteohistological contributions of aetosaurs focused on their osteoderms, but rarely on appendicular bones. Here, we analyse the microstructure of the humerus, femur and tibia of Aetosauroides scagliai (specimens PVL 207...
Rancho La Brea (California, USA) is the most emblematic Quaternary fossiliferous locality in the world, since both the high number and diversity of the specimens recovered and their excellent preservational quality. In the last decades, paleobiological and paleoecological knowledge of the different groups of mammals from this site has increased not...
Aetosaurs were a group of heavily armoured pseudosuchians, recorded in most of the Triassic continental deposits worldwide. Several osteohistological contributions of aetosaurs focused mostly in their osteoderms, but faintly in appendicular bones. Here we performed the first osteohistological study since appendicular bones on a South American aetos...
Sauropodomorph dinosaurs dominated the herbivorous niches during the first 40 million years of dinosaur history (Late Triassic–Early Jurassic), yet palaeobiological factors that influenced their evolutionary success are not fully understood. For instance, knowledge on their behaviour is limited, although herding in sauropodomorphs has been well doc...
El tejido óseo es el componente estructural del esqueleto de los vertebrados e interviene
en funciones fisiológicas a lo largo del desarrollo ontogenético de los organismos. La
relación entre los procesos fisiológicos y la organización de los tejidos óseos permite
inferir sobre aspectos de su biología. De esta manera, el estudio de la microestructu...
The Late Cretaceous dinosaur record in southern South America has been improved recently; particularly with findings from Chorrillo and Cerro Fortaleza formations, both bearing ankylosaur remains, a clade that was not previously recorded in the Austral Basin. The dinosaur fauna of the type locality of Cerro Fortaleza Formation is known from -and bi...
Two new specimens of abelisaurid theropods from La Invernada fossil area (Bajo de la Carpa Formation; Santonian) are described. They correspond to an incomplete skull and several postcranial remains. MAU-Pv-LI-582 (skull) shares some morphological traits with other furileusaurs (Viavenator exxoni and Llukalkan aliocranianus) from the same area, as:...
Proterochampsids were a group of stem archosaurs from the Middle-Late Triassic of South America. Using for the first time in proterochampsids quantitative microanatomical and morphological data and an inference model, we analyze the microstructure of postcranial bones of proterochampsids to infer life-history traits dealing with growth dynamics, on...
The most austral South American ankylosaur record correspond to the preliminary report of an isolate tooth recovered from a microsite (MPM-PV-18805, Museo Padre Molina, Río Gallegos) at Cerro Fortaleza (Cerro Fortaleza Formation, Campanian-Maastrichtian), in Southern Patagonia. Associate materials were recently identified as interstitial armor ossi...
Among turtles, cases of “gigantism” occur mostly in pleurodiran Pelomedusoides and cryptodirans, but are infrequent among pleurodiran chelids, which are mostly small-medium sized turtles. Yaminuechelys spp. are extinct South American long-necked chelids (from the Late Cretaceous–early Paleocene of Patagonia, Argentina) with caparaces almost three t...
The study of bone microstructure of fossil vertebrates (i.e., paleohistology) has demonstrated to be a very important source of paleobiological information. Paleohistological studies are based on the standardized analysis of petrographic thin sections. Although the development of new technologies (e.g., microtomography) have provided non-destructiv...
Los proterochámpsidos fueron un grupo de arcosauriformes basales cuadrúpedos procedentes de sedimentos continentales del Triásico Medio-Superior de Sudamérica. Con el objeto de dilucidar aspectos relacionados a la historia de vida, estadios ontogenéticos yrelación entre maduración somática y esquelética, se efectuó un estudio paleohistológico de cu...
Uno de los principales aportes de los estudios osteohistológicos al
campo antropológico y forense ha sido la diferenciación entre hueso
humano y no-humano. Este tipo de estudio permite obtener información,
cualitativa y cuantitativa, sobre todo en aquellos casos en que los restos
se encuentran fragmentados, incompletos y/o mezclados. En este marco,...
Los ornitosúquidos fueron un grupo triásico de arcosaurios pseudosuquios, cuadrúpedos a bípedos facultativos, de hasta 2 metros de longitud. Poseían dos hileras de osteodermos paramediales imbricados. Esta contribución se enfoca en un análisis morfohistológico efectuado en tres osteodermos (cervicales y dorsales) de Riojasuchus tenuisceps (PVL 3814...
La presente contribución se centra en la histología ósea de dos ornitópodos antárticos de
la Formación Snow Hill Island (Maastrichtiano-Campaniano), Trinisaura
santamartaensis y Morrosaurus antarcticus. El objetivo es establecer el estadio
ontogenético de ambos taxones, así como determinar si su crecimiento presenta
diferencias significativas con f...
Here we provide a detailed description of the postcranial skeleton of the holotype and referred specimens of Buitreraptor gonzalezorum . This taxon was recovered as a unenlagiine dromaeosaurid in several recent phylogenetic studies and is the best represented Gondwanan dromaeosaurid discovered to date. It was preliminarily described in a brief arti...
Here we provide a detailed description of the postcranial skeleton of the holotype and referred specimens of Buitreraptor gonzalezorum . This taxon was recovered as a unenlagiine dromaeosaurid in several recent phylogenetic studies and is the best represented Gondwanan dromaeosaurid discovered to date. It was preliminarily described in a brief arti...
Osteoderms are common in most archosauriform lineages, including basal forms, such as doswelliids and proterochamp-sids. In this survey, osteoderms of the doswelliids Doswellia kaltenbachi and Vancleavea campi, and proterochampsid Chanaresuchus bonapartei are examined to infer their palaeobiology, such as histogenesis, age estimation at death, deve...
Titanosauria was the most diverse and successful lineage of sauropod dinosaurs. This clade had its major radiation during the middle Early Cretaceous and survived up to the end of that period. Among sauropods, this lineage has the most disparate values of body mass, including the smallest and largest sauropods known. Although recent findings have i...
Bones in the fossil record sometimes exhibit unusual structures that can be attributed to pathologies, taphonomic alterations, or morphological variation. The goal of this work is to describe three bone abnormalities present in the type specimen of Bonitasaura salgadoi from the Cretaceous of north Patagonia, Argentina. The studied material correspo...
Sauropod dinosaurs include the largest terrestrial animals and are considered to have uninterrupted rapid rates of growth, which differs from their more basal relatives, which have a slower cyclical growth. Here we examine the bone microstructure of several sauropodomorph dinosaurs, including basal taxa, as well as the more derived sauropods. Altho...
Buitreraptor gonzalezorum is a theropod dinosaur belonging to the clade Unenlagiidae. It is known by several specimens coming from the Upper Cretaceous of Northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. In spite of its completeness, only a preliminary description of its postcranial anatomy is available. The aim of the present contribution is to make a detailed...
Los osteodermos son estructuras dérmicas comunes en Archosauriformes. La microestructura de estos elementos brinda información para su propio origen (histogénesis) y sirven para estimar la edad de los individuos (esqueletocronología). Se presentan los resultados concernientes a la histología de los osteodermos de Doswellia kaltenbachi (USNM-PAL 221...
Los anquilosaurios son dinosaurios ornitisquios caracterizados por poseer una armadura compuesta por una amplia variedad de osteodermos. Estudios histológicos efectuados en osteodermos de anquilosaurios han mostrado que la microestructura de éstos tiene valor sistemático. Con el objeto de brindar información concerniente a su asignación taxonómica,...
In dinosaurs and other archosaurs, the presence of foramina connected with internal chambers in axial and appendic-ular bones is regarded as a robust indicator of postcranial skeletal pneumaticity (PSP). Here we analyze PSP and its paleobiological implications in rebbachisaurid diplodocoid sauropod dinosaurs based primarily on the dorsal vertebrae...
Agustinia ligabuei is an Early Cretaceous sauropod dinosaur from the northwest of Patagonia that is currently the topic of debate with respect to its phylogenetic position and atypical dermal armor. The presence of four morphotypes of laminar and transversely elongated putative osteoderms was used to consider Agustinia as an armored sauropod. Regar...
Osteomyelitis is reported for the first time in a sauropod dinosaur. The material
(MCS-PV 183) comes from the Anacleto Formation (Campanian, Late Cretaceous), at
the Cinco Saltos locality, R�ıo Negro Province, Argentina. The specimen consists of 16
mid and mid-distal caudal vertebrae of a titanosaur sauropod. Evidence of bacterial
infection is pres...
La presencia de osteodermos es común en gran parte del linaje Archosauriformes. Además de su valor sistemático, la microestructura de los osteodermos brinda información concerniente a su propio origen (histogénesis) y puede emplearse para determinar la edad de los individuos (esqueletocronología). Se presentan los resultados de un estudio histológi...
Los estudios osteohistológicos (caracterización e interpretación del tejido óseo) permiten analizar distintos aspectos de la biología de un taxón, como su ecología, crecimiento y maduración sexual/somática. Con el objetivo de responder interrogantes biológicos en arcosaurios y testudines, se realizó una puesta a punto de las metodologías tradiciona...
New ornithischian remains reported here (MPEF-PV 3826) include two complete metatarsi with associated phalanges and caudal vertebrae, from the late Toarcian levels of the Cañadón Asfalto Formation. We conclude that these fossil remains represent a bipedal heterodontosaurid but lack diagnostic characters to identify them at the species level, althou...
The presence of well-vascularised, endosteal bone in the medullary region of long bones of nonavian dinosaurs has been invoked as being homologous to medullary bone, a specialised bone tissue formed during ovulation in birds. However, similar bone tissues can result as a pathological response in modern birds and in nonavian dinosaurs, and has also...
Yaminuechelys is a long-necked chelid turtle whose remains have been recovered from outcrops of the Santonian-Maastrichtian and Danian of South America. With the purpose of providing data about shell sculpturing origin and palaeoecology, the bone histology of several shell elements (including neural, costal, peripheral and plastral plates) of Yamin...
Titanosaurs are the only group of sauropodomorph dinosaurs that possesses osteoderms. The Anacleto and Allen formations (Upper Cretaceous) from northern Patagonia (Argentina) have provided an abundance of these elements, isolated or associated with more or less complete skeletons. Here, we study the morphology, microanatomy, and histology of titano...
Supraspinous ossified rods have been reported in the sacra of some derived sauropod dinosaurs. Although different hypotheses have been proposed to explain the origin of this structure, histological evidence has never been provided to support or reject any of them. In order to establish its origin, we analyse and characterize the microstructure of t...
The long-necked chelid turtle Yaminuechelys aff. maior is described on the basis of post-cranial material of two specimens from the Lower–Middle Campanian Anacleto Formation,nortwestern Patagonia (Argentina). These post-cranial remains are described macro-scopically (external morphology) and microscopically (histological sections of the shell).Alth...
Soft-shelled turtles (Pan-Trionychidae) are not included in the present-day chelonian fauna of Greece and have been unknown in the Greek fossil record up to now. Here, we report the first fossil occurrence of a soft-shelled turtle from Greece, originating from the Pliocene Gefira Member (Angelochori Formation), in the lower Axios valley. The corres...
tThe histology of the turtle shell has proven to be a valuable source of characters for thestudy of development and shell origin, as well as early turtles’ lifestyles and systematics.Here we describe and discuss the shell bone microanatomy and histology of Condorchelysantiqua, a stem turtle from the Lower Jurassic of Patagonia. Examination of sever...
Postcranial osteoderms are commonly developed in the major lineages of Archosauriformes, including forms such as proterochampsids and doswelliids. Here, we survey the histology of osteoderms of the doswelliids Archeopelta arborensis and Tarjadia ruthae, and the proterochampsids Chanaresuchus bonapartei and Pseudochampsa ischigualastensis to underst...
Much of the current paleobiological knowledge on titanosaur sauropods was attained in just the last fifteen years, in particular that related to reproductive and developmental biology. In recent years it has also been progress on other poorly explored topics, such as pneumaticity, architecture and locomotion, and reconstruction endocasts and associ...
Megaraptorids are a group of predatory dinosaurs that inhabited Gondwana from Cenomanian to Santonian
times (Late Cretaceous). Phylogenetic relationships of megaraptorids have been matter of recent
debate, being alternatively interpreted as basal coelurosaurs, carcharodontosaurian allosauroids, megalosauroids,
and basal tyrannosauroids. One of the...
Mussaurus patagonicus (Dinosauria: Sauropodomorpha) is a basal sauropodomorph from the Late Triassic of southern Argentina that is known from a large number of individuals, including juveniles, subadults, and adults. Here, we report on the occurrence of an unusual bone tissue in an individual of M. patagonicus. The rather atypical bone tissue is lo...
Here, we describe the bone histology of juvenile specimens of the basal sauropodomorph Mussaurus patagonicus and interpret its significance in terms of the early growth dynamics of this taxon. Thin sections from three juvenile specimens (femur length, 111–120mm) of Mussaurus were analysed. The sampled bones consist of multiple postcranial elements...
As in other archosauriforms, phytosaurs and aetosaurs are characterized by the presence of well-developed osteoderms. Here we provide a comparative study on the microstructure of phytosaur (five taxa) and aetosaur (thirteen taxa) osteoderms. For outgroup comparison, we sampled osteoderms of the sister taxon to Aetosauria, Revueltosaurus callenderi,...
Eight adult tarsometatarsi belonging to eight fossil species (Palaeeudyptes gunnari, Palaeeudyptes klekowskii, Anthropornis grandis, Anthropornis nordenskjoeldi, Archaeospheniscus wimani, Marambiornis exilis, Delphinornis arctowskii and Delphinornis larseni) collected from the Antarctic A. nordenskjoeldi Biozone (La Meseta Formation, , 34.2 Ma) wer...
Recent palaeohistological studies on paramedian osteoderms of aetosaurs revealed the presence of growth lines (lines of arrested growth or LAGs) and a minimal or nonexistent secondary remodelling in the bone matrix of these elements. This feature allows the age of individuals to be estimated through growth line count. In the present contribution we...
MORPHOLOGY AND HISTOLOGY OF OSTEODERMS FROM A PEIROSAURID FROM THE NEUQUEN BASIN. Osteoderms of a new crocodyliform specimen recovered from the Puesto Hernández locality are described here, found in sediments of the Plottier Formation (late Coniacian), near Rincón de los Sauces city, Neuquén Province. The studied osteoderms, that are part of the as...
Central Patagonia, Argentina, preserves an abundant and rich fossil record. Among vertebrate fossils from the Upper Cretaceous Bajo Barreal Formation of Patagonia, five individuals of the small, non-avian theropod dinosaur Aniksosaurus darwini were recovered. Group behavior is an important aspect of dinosaur paleoecology, but it is not well-documen...
