Abstract
ABSTRACT Currently, only birds have a pneumatic system, but in the past, this was common among several ornithodirans. Within Titanosauria, it was the saltasaurines that showed a high degree of postcranial pneumaticity. The objective of this work is analysing the extent of postcranial pneumaticity in saltasaurines and compare it with other derived titanosaurs. To carry out this work, presacral vertebrae, dorsal ribs, scapulae, coracoids and ilia of saltasaurines were analysed. The presacral vertebrae present a high degree of pneumatisation with a highly variable distribution of foramina, with some ‘foramina zones’, there is a homoplastic pattern of pneumaticity: presence of foramina connected to camellated tissue. With respect to the ilia, camellated tissue was recorded in all taxa. Instead, scapulae and coracoids, present camellated tissue in Saltasaurus and they cannot be pneumatised in Neuquensaurus. Comparing with other titanosaurs, we observe that there are ‘foramina zones’ for presacral and caudal vertebrae. It is also possible to establish that the pneumatisation of the dorsal ribs has a conservative pattern, not only in saltasaurines but also in the Saurischia clade, and the presence of pneumaticity in the ilia is frequent in the Lithostrotia and even outside, in rebbachisaurs.
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