Abstract
RECORD OF AN AEOLOSAURINI DINOSAUR (SAUROPODA, TITANOSAURIA) IN THE UPPER CRETACEOUS (PLOTTIER FORMATION) OF NORTHERN NEUQUEN PROVINCE, ARGENTINA, AND COMMENTS ON THE SOUTH AMERICAN AEOLOSAURINI. The clade Aeolosaurini is represented by several specimens found, so far, only in Argentina and Brazil. The material reported here corresponds to a sauropod titanosaur consisting of four incomplete anterior caudal vertebrae, from the Narambuena Paleontological Site, Rincon de los Sauces, Neuquen Province, Argentina. The specimen comes from the Plottier Formation (late Coniacian-lower Santonian, Upper Cretaceous), Neuquen Group. The specimen has a combination of features that includes it into the clade Aeolosaurini: anterior caudal centra with anterodorsal margin bent forward; prezygapophyses elongated in anterior caudal, in correlation with the extreme displacement of the neural arch forward; and anteroposteriorly elongated articular facets of prezygapophyses, at least in the anterior caudals. However, it differs from other Aeolosaurini by having postzygapophysis with anteroposteriorly short articular facets, not as elongated in the prezygapophyses. This specimen corresponds not only to the fi rst discovery of an Aeolosaurini in the north of the Neuquen Basin (because Rinconsaurus caudamirus Calvo & Gonzalez Riga has been included in another clade, Rinconsauria), but also the oldest record of the group.
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