Lucas Ernesto FiorelliCentro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia Tecnológica de Anillaco (CRILAR - CONICET) · Departamento de Geociencias - Área de Paleovertebrados
Lucas Ernesto Fiorelli
Biologist / Doctor in Geological Sciences - Paleontologist
About
113
Publications
47,510
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
1,290
Citations
Introduction
I’m a CONICET researcher at the CRILAR institute, Anillaco, La Rioja province, Argentina.
I made my PhD on the Sanagasta nesting site at La Rioja, a titanosaur-breeding colony in the late Cretaceous Los Llanos Formation. The Sanagasta nesting site is the first documented case of environment-dependent reproduction in sauropods.
My current research focuses on the Triassic and Cretaceous palaeoenvironments of La Rioja. The Mesozoic vertebrates (mainly archosaurians) from La Rioja are the main research topics, but I am working in other topics, including archosaur eggs and eggshell evolutionary trends, functional morphology and their ecological adaptations. I carried out research on regional geology, sedimentology, taphonomy and diagenesis of Mesozoic continental sites.
Publications
Publications (113)
The Lower Member of the Ituzaingó Formation (LMIF), fluvial in origin and assigned to the Upper Miocene, contains a conglomerate level known as “Mesopotamiense” or “Conglomerado osífero” that has yielded a rich fauna of vertebrates. The aim of this contribution is to describe a titanosaurian dinosaur eggshell fragment recovered from the LMIF at the...
The Chañares Formation (Ischigualasto‐Villa Unión Basin) is worldwide known by its exquisitely preserved fossil record of latest Middle‐to‐early Late Triassic tetrapods, including erpetosuchids, “rauisuchians,” proterochampsids, gracilisuchids, dinosauromorphs, pterosauromorphs, kannemeyeriiform dicynodonts, and traversodontid, chiniquodontid and p...
Tarjadia ruthae is a quadrupedal terrestrial pseudosuchian from the Middle-early Upper Triassic of the Chañares Formation, La Rioja Province, Argentina. Originally, this species was identified as an indeterminate archosaur and later as a doswelliid archosauriform based on very fragmentary specimens characterized by the ornamentation of the skull ro...
Two lineages of Kannemeyeriiformes (Synapsida, Dicynodontia) are currently known in the Ladinian–Carnian Chañares Formation (Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin, Argentina): stahleckeriine stahleckeriids, based upon postcrania, and a single non-stahleckeriine species, Dinodontosaurus brevirostris, known mostly by cranial material. Available data on the...
Eggshell morphology is a valuable indicator of the local conditions within the nests of modern crocodilians and birds. In contrast to these latter, the anatomical structure of the eggshells of most crocodilian species is practically unknown. Here, we provide the first characterization of crocodilian eggshells, using x-ray micro-CT scans. We studied...
Desde la creación del CRILAR (Centro Regional de Investigaciones Científicas y Transferencia Tecnológica) hace más de 20 años en la provincia de La Rioja, la paleoherpetología estuvo presente en su historia de investigación y transferencia. En el presente trabajo se narran los detalles de su creación, sus objetivos iniciales y los difíciles primero...
Titanosaurs were successful herbivorous dinosaurs widely distributed in all continents during the Cretaceous, with the major diversity in South America. The success of titanosaurs was probably due to several physiological and ecological factors, in addition to a series of morphological traits they achieved during their evolutionary history. However...
The geological‑paleontological heritage of a region represents a component on which tourist activ‑ ity can be based. The objective of this study is to show how the policies created at all levels of government directly or indirectly affect the sustainable development of tourist activity in natural protected areas (ANP) with paleontological heritage....
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...
Eggshells represent an important part of the fossil record of Titanosauria (Dinosauria – Neosauropoda) and their stable isotope compositions are valuable palaeoenvironmental proxies. A new set of conventional (δ¹⁸O and δ¹³C) and clumped (Δ47) stable isotope compositions of titanosaurian eggshells is presented, together with that of a bone and a sin...
The kannemeyeriiforms of the latest Ladinian-?early Carnian Chañares Formation (Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin) exemplify the historical taxonomic controversies of several South American dicynodonts. Three taxa were originally recognized based on skull anatomy: “Chanaria” platyceps and two species of Dinodontosaurus (genus otherwise known in the P...
Rhynchosaurs were quadrupedal, bulky herbivorous archosauromorph diapsids with a highly specialized dental apparatus. This group is restricted to the Triassic Period and became extremely abundant worldwide during the late Carnian, numerically dominating some of the first dinosaur-bearing assemblages. Despite their high abundance in upper Carnian be...
South American titanosaurians have been central to the study of the evolution of Cretaceous sauropod dinosaurs. Despite their remarkable diversity, the fragmentary condition of several taxa and the scarcity of records outside Patagonia and southwestern Brazil have hindered the study of continental-scale paleobiogeographic relationships. We describe...
Present knowledge of Late Triassic tetrapod evolution, including the rise of dinosaurs, relies heavily on the fossil-rich continental deposits of South America, their precise depositional histories and correlations. We report on an extended succession of the Ischigualasto Formation exposed in the Hoyada del Cerro Las Lajas (La Rioja, Argentina), wh...
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...
The lower Carnian levels of the Chañares Formation (Ischigualasto‐Villa Unión Basin, La Rioja Province) have yielded some of the most informative dinosaur precursor species known so far. However, these species are based on partial skeletons that in several cases hamper the comparison between them because of the absence of overlapping bones. This ha...
Fernandes and Ribeiro (2015) described the evolutive history of the Bauru Basin in a clear and simple way, synthesising the research activity of the last 20 years. Sedimentological and stratigraphic data reflect the research activity of the senior author, whereas palaeontological information is a synthesis of data from literature. We do not believe...
The reproduction of titanosaur dinosaurs is still a complex and debated topic. Their Late Cretaceous nesting sites are distributed worldwide and their eggs display substantial morphological variations according to the parent species. In contrast to the typical 1.3-2.0 mm thick shells common to eggs of most titanosaur species (e.g., those that neste...
Finite element models.
Nastran files for each egg model analized.
Our current knowledge of Argentinean titanosaurs outside Patagonia has been effectively limited to the province of Salta (e.g., Saltasaurus). However, several skeletal remains of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaurs have been discovered in the Cretaceous strata of La Rioja Province, northwest Argentina. Herein we describe new titanosaur material from t...
The early late Triassic Chañares Formation of Argentina contains one of the richest tetrapod-bearing assemblages of this age worldwide and is important for understanding the origin and early radiation of suchians, dinosauromorphs, and mammaliaforms. Here, we describe the fabric and microfossil content of herbivore coprolites produced by large kanne...
We describe tetrapod burrows from the uppermost Middle-lower Upper Triassic (latest Ladinian-early Carnian) Chañares Formation (Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin), La Rioja Province, northwestern Argentina. The burrows were found in different localities of the unit, but restricted to the lowermost 17 m of the formation. They occur at the same interva...
The Triassic period documents the origin and diversification of modern amniote lineages and the Late Triassic fossil record of
South America has been crucial to shed light on these early evolutionary histories. However, the faunistic changes that led to
the establishment of Late Triassic ecosystems are largely ignored because of the global scarcity...
Studies of the palaeobiology of titanosaur eggs are significantly more common than studies of titanosaur-egg-bearing strata. Nevertheless, the latter provide significant insight into palaeoenvironmental conditions associated with the egg-laying behaviour. This study examines titanosaur-egg-bearing strata of the Upper Cretaceous Los Llanos Formation...
We hereby describe fish material collected from the lowermost Upper Triassic continental levels of the Chañares Formation (Campo de Córdoba and El Torcido localities). The specimens consist of a fragmentary dermal skull roof bone assigned to Mawsoniidae based on its ornamentation marked by coarse ridges and wide shallow grooves, plus patches of gan...
The Cretaceous Sanagasta neosauropod nesting site (La Rioja, Argentina) was the first confirmed instance of extinct dinosaurs using geothermal-generated heat to incubate their eggs. The nesting strategy and hydrothermal activities at this site led to the conclusion that the surprisingly 7 mm thick-shelled eggs were adapted to harsh hydrothermal mic...
Cretaceous titanosaur nesting sites are currently known only from Europe, Asia and South America. In the latter, only the Auca Mahuevo and Sanagasta nesting sites have been confidently assigned to this clade of sauropod dinosaurs. Here we report the discovery of the first eggs and egg clutches found at Tama, a new Upper Cretaceous fossiliferous loc...
Titanosauria is a globally distributed clade of sometimes extremely large Mesozoic herbivorous sauropod dinosaurs. On the basis of current evidence these giant dinosaurs seem to have reproduced in specific and localized nesting sites. However, no investigations have been performed to understand the possible ecological and geological biases that act...
The Agua de la Peña Group of the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin (northwestern Argentina) documents the evolution of archosauromorph assemblages in western Gondwana during the late Middle and Late Triassic. However, the South American archosauromorph record in the aftermath of the Permo/Triassic mass extinction (Early-early Middle Triassic) is rema...
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...
Fragmentary remains of Microsuchus schilleri (Crocodyliformes: Mesoeucrocodylia) from the Bajo de La Carpa Formation (Santonian, Late Creteceous) of northern Patagonia, Argentina, are decribed and reevaluated taxonomically. The type specimen is an articulated individual with hindlimb and axial remains. Microsuchus has several traits that allow to r...
The increasing number of fossil pterosaur eggs sheds light on nesting environments and breeding behaviors of these extinct flying reptiles. Here we report the first partial three-dimensional egg of the pterosaur, Pterodaustro guinazui, from central Argentina. The specimen was discovered from the same Albian deposits as the exceptional P. guinazui e...
Defecation in communal latrines is a common behaviour of extant mammals widely distributed among megaherbivores. This behaviour has key social functions with important biological and ecological implications. Herbivore communal latrines are only documented among mammals and their fossil record is exceptionally restricted to the late Cenozoic. Here w...
Una nueva asociación de ostrácodos y carofitas fue recuperada de sedimentos correspondientes a la Formación Los Llanos, en la localidad de Tama, provincia de La Rioja. La edad de esta formación fue clásicamente considerada por varios autores como neógena en base a correlaciones con niveles portadores de restos de mamíferos en la provincia de San Lu...
The Cretaceous Sanagasta nesting site, La Rioja Province, Argentina, has shed insights on the reproductive behavior of neosauropods, documenting colonial behavior, phylopatry,
and an opportunistic environment-dependent-reproduction relationship with their paleoenvironment. The taphonomy of this monotypic nesting site is described in order to assess...
WE REPORT THE FIRST EVIDENCE FOR A NESTING COLONY OF MESOZOIC BIRDS ON GONDWANA: a fossil accumulation in Late Cretaceous rocks mapped and collected from within the campus of the National University of Comahue, Neuquén City, Patagonia (Argentina). Here, Cretaceous ornithothoracine birds, almost certainly Enanthiornithes, nested in an arid, shallow...
SAUROPOD EGGS FROM THE APTIAN–ALBIAN CERRO BARCINO FORMATION, CHUBUT (PATAGONIA,
ARGENTINA): A PALEOENVIRONMENTAL AND PALEOBIOLOGICAL ENIGMA. Here are described the first eggs and eggshell fragments from the Lower Cretaceous Chubut province. The two eggs and eggshell materials come from the Huaniman locality at the north-central region of Chubut. I...
Abstract Rhynchosaurs first appear in the Early Triassic
fossil record and flourished during the late Carnian as the
dominant members of several assemblages worldwide. In
Argentina, the rhynchosaur record is currently restricted to
the Ischigualasto Formation of late Carnian–earliest Norian
age. Recent fieldwork in the new locality of Brazo del
Pum...
In their article Dávila and Lithgow-Bertelloni (2013) propose that the Andes have been isostatically uncompensated throughout the Cenozoic and that additional forces induced by mantle flow were required to explain the observed topographies. Although this hypothesis seems plausible, they provide a regional model of “the Bermejo-Pampas foreland of Ar...
This study analyzes a collection of fossil mammals from the Salicas Formation in the El Degolladito area, La Rioja Province, Argentina. The materials reported herein were recovered from two sites (site 1 and site 2). Reported mammals are Macrochorobates Scillato-Yané, Chasicotatus Scillato-Yané, and Hoplophorini indet. (Xenarthra, Cingulata); Paedo...
The water vapor conductance (GH2O) of the neosauropod eggs from the Lower Cretaceous Sanagasta nesting site in La Rioja Province, Argentina, was examined and compared with other Cretaceous Argentinean oological material. The 2900 mgH2O/day?Torr GH2O of the Sanagasta eggshells confirms an extremely moist nesting environment and supports field observ...