| Bravasaurus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Speculative restoration ofBravasaurus | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Reptilia |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Clade: | †Macronaria |
| Clade: | †Titanosauria |
| Clade: | †Lithostrotia |
| Clade: | †Aeolosaurini |
| Genus: | †Bravasaurus Hechenleitneret al., 2020 |
| Type species | |
| †Bravasaurus arreirosorum Hechenleitneret al., 2020 | |
Bravasaurus (meaningLaguna Brava lizard) is a genus oftitanosauriansauropod dinosaur from theLate CretaceousCiénaga del Río Huaco Formation ofLa Rioja, Argentina. It contains one species,Bravasaurus arreirosorum.[1]
The generic nameBravasaurus is derived from theLaguna Brava National Park in Argentina. The specific name refers to the people, thearriero or drivers in Spanish, who carried cattle through theAndes in the 19th century.
Bravasaurus was roughly 7 metres (23 ft) long and weighed nearly 2.9 metric tons (3.2 short tons).[1] It is known from theholotype CRILAR-Pv 612, which consists of the right quadrate and quadratojugal, four cervical, five dorsal, and three caudal vertebrae, few dorsal ribs, threehaemal arches, the left humerus, a fragmentary ulna, the metacarpal IV, a partial left ilium with sacral ribs, the right pubis, a partial ischium, the left femur, and both fibulae, and theparatype CRILAR-Pv 613, which consists of an isolated tooth, the right ilium, the right femur, and dorsal ribs.[1]
The describers' phylogenetic analysis placesBravasaurus as a derived member of theLithostrotia, in the cladeAeolosaurini, which they recover as a subclade ofRinconsauria, different from other cladograms. Their cladogram is shown below.
The holotype locality, the Quebrada de Santo Domingo site, preserves one of the largest concentrations of titanosaur eggs in the world. The describing authors suggest some connection with eitherBravasaurus or its contemporaryPunatitan, which was described in the same paper.
