BRAVASAURUS
a titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina.
Pronunciation: BRAH-vah-SOR-us
Meaning: Laguna Brava lizard
Author/s: Hechenleitner
et al. (
2020)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: La Rioja, Argentina
Discovery Chart Position: #1030
Punatitan coughlini
(The Arrieros' Laguna Brava Lizard)Etymology
Bravasaurus is derived from "Brava" (for Laguna Brava; a lake for which the Laguna Brava Provincial Park is named) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard).
The
species epithet,
arrierosorum,
honours the Arrieros (colloquially known as "muleteers" or "muleskinners"): A person or people who transport goods using pack animals, in this case, the folk who wrangled cattle across the Andes in the 19th century.
ZooBank registry:
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:84B7ECE6-60B4-4324-B983-CD86C8952E8A.
Discovery
The remains of
Bravasaurus were discovered in sandstone levels 34 meters above the base of the Ciénaga del Río Huaco Formation at QSD (Quebrada de Santo Domingo) in the Andes of La Rioja, NW Argentina. The Quebrada de Santo Domingo locality is famous for its copious fossilised sauropod eggs, making it one of the largest nesting sites documented worldwide.
The
holotype (CRILAR-Pv 612) is two skull bones, four neck, five back, and three tail vertebrae, a few ribs, three chevrons, a left upper arm, a fragmentary lower arm, a hand bone (metacarpal IV), a partial pelvic girdle, a left thigh, and both calf bones.
The paratype (CRILAR-Pv 613) is an isolated tooth, a hip bone (right ilium), a right thigh, and ribs.
Estimations
Timeline:
Era: Mesozoic
Epoch: Late Cretaceous
Stage: Campanian-Maastrichtian
Age range: 74-66 mya
Stats:
Est. max. length: 7 meters
Est. max. hip height: ?
Est. max. weight: 3 tons
Diet: Herbivore
Family Tree
Bravasaurus
arrierosorum
References
• González Riga BJ, Lamanna MC, Otero A, Ortiz David LD, Kellner AWA and Ibiricu LM (2019) "An overview of the appendicular skeletal anatomy of South American titanosaurian sauropods, with definition of a newly recognized clade".
Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências. 91 (suppl 2): e20180374. DOI: 10.1590/0001-3765201920180374.
• Hechenleitner EM, Leuzinger L, Martinelli AG, Rocher S, Fiorelli LE, Taborda JRA and Salgado L (
2020) "Two Late Cretaceous sauropods reveal titanosaurian dispersal across South America".
Communications Biology, 3(622). DOI: 10.1038/s42003-020-01338-w.
• Carballido JL, Otero A, Mannion PD, Salgado L and Moreno AP (2022) "Titanosauria: A Critical Reappraisal of Its Systematics and the Relevance of the South American Record".
Page 269–298 in Otero, Carballido and Pol (eds.) "South American Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs. Record, Diversity and Evolution". DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-95959-3.
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To cite this page:
Atkinson, L.
"
BRAVASAURUS :: from DinoChecker's dinosaur archive".
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http://www.dinochecker.com/dinosaurs/BRAVASAURUS›. Web access: 07th Mar 2026.
