Volkheimeria
| Volkheimeria | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Clade: | Dinosauria |
| Clade: | Saurischia |
| Clade: | †Sauropodomorpha |
| Clade: | †Sauropoda |
| Genus: | †Volkheimeria Bonaparte, 1979 |
| Species: | †V. chubutensis
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| Binomial name | |
| †Volkheimeria chubutensis Bonaparte, 1979
| |
Volkheimeria (meaning "of Volkheimer") was a eusauropod.[1] It lived during the Early Jurassic, approximately 178 million years ago. Fossils of Volkheimeria have been found in the Cañadón Asfalto Formation of the Cañadón Asfalto Basin in Patagonia, Argentina. The type (and only known) species, V. chubutensis, was described by José Bonaparte in 1979. Volkheimeria is known from some incomplete postcrania, including a mostly complete pelvis and sacrum, caudal vertebrae and a femur and tibia.[2] Many features of this scant material can distinguish Volkheimeria especially in the pelvic and vertebral regions, such as the very low flat neural spines.[3]
Discovery and naming
Volkheimeria was first described in 1979 by Jose Bonaparte. In the paper, Bonaparte also named its type species, V. chubutensis. It was also shown to be a relative of Lapparentosaurus by Bonaparte due to similarities in the neural laminae. Originally identified as a possible cetiosaur along with Patagosaurus and then identified as a brachiosaur for a time, Volkheimeria is now considered a eusauropod along with Patagosaurus and Lapparentosaurus, with Volkheimeria and Lapparentosaurus relatively primitive eusauropods compared to the more derived Patagosaurus. The only known specimen of Volkheimeria is from layers originally suggested as Callovian to Oxfordian aged Patagonian deposits of the Cañadón Asfalto Formation. This layers have been recently re-dated, finding out thanks to advanced zircon datation that the bones of all the vertebrates of Las Charcitas member where deposited in between 179-178 million years, that is Middle-Late Toarcian.[4]
Classification
Volkheimeria was originally identified as a primitive sauropod, distinguishable from Patagosaurus. Some phylogenetic analyses of the taxon have recovered it as a eusauropod, vulcanodontid, or primitive sauropod, though its position is variable due to its incomplete nature. The phylogenetic analysis of Pol and colleagues in 2022 recovered Volkheimeria as a non-eusauropod based on primitive features of the vertebrae, though alternative placements were identified as closer to either Amygdalodon or Archaeodontosaurus, as shown below.[5]
| Sauropoda |
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References
- ^ Leonardo Salgado; Rodolfo A. Coria (2005). "Sauropods of Patagonia: systematic update and notes on global sauropod evolution". In Virginia Tidwell; Kenneth Carpenter (eds.). Thunder-Lizards: The Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press. p. 495. ISBN 9780253345424.
- ^ Weishampel, David P.; Dodson, Peter; Osmòlska, Halszka (17 December 2007). The Dinosauria. University of California Press. p. 383. ISBN 978-0520254084.
- ^ Bonaparte, J.F. (1979). "Dinosaurs: A Jurassic Assemblage from Patagonia". Science. 205 (4413): 1377–1379. Bibcode:1979Sci...205.1377B. doi:10.1126/science.205.4413.1377. JSTOR 1748887. PMID 17732331. S2CID 34854458.
- ^ Pol, D.; Gomez, K.; Holwerda, F. M.; Rauhut, O. W.; Carballido, J. L. (2022). "Sauropods from the Early Jurassic of South America and the Radiation of Eusauropoda". South American Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs. 1 (1): 131–163. Retrieved 2 May 2022.
- ^ Pol, D.; Gomez, K.; Holwerda, F.H.; Rauhut, O.W.M.; Carballido, J.L. (2022). "Sauropods from the Early Jurassic of South America and the Radiation of Eusauropoda". In Otero, A.; Carballido, J.L.; Pol, D. (eds.). South American Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs. Record, Diversity and Evolution. Springer. pp. 131–163. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-95959-3. ISBN 978-3-030-95958-6. ISSN 2197-9596.
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