The oldest Cretaceous North American sauropod dinosaur

Abstract

Sauropod dinosaurs have been found in sediments dating to most of the Cretaceous Period on all major Mesozoic landmasses, but this record is spatiotemporally uneven, even in relatively well-explored North American sediments. Within the 80 million-year-span of the Cretaceous, no definitive sauropod occurrences are known in North America from two ca. 20–25 million-year-long gaps, one from approximately the Berriasian–Barremian and the other from the mid-Cenomanian–late Campanian. Herein, we present an undescribed specimen that was collected in the middle part of the twentieth century that expands the known spatiotemporal distribution of Early Cretaceous North American sauropods, partially filling the earlier gap. The material is from the Berriasian–Valanginian-aged (ca. 139 Ma) Chilson Member of the Lakota Formation of South Dakota and appears to represent the only non-titanosauriform from the Cretaceous of North America or Asia. It closely resembles Camarasaurus and may represent a form closely related to that genus that persisted across the Jurassic–Cretaceous boundary.

Keywords::

• sauropod
• dinosaur
• Morrison Formation
• Lakota Formation

Acknowledgements

Thanks to K.M. Melstrom (University of Utah) for collections research assistance, D. Pagnac for assistance during the field visit, and W. Simpson and P. Makovicky (FMNH) for collections access. Thanks to reviewers J. Nair (University of Queensland) and P. D. Mannion (Imperial College London).

Notes

^1. Email: [email protected]

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Geographic Committee for Research and Exploration [grant number #9252-13].