Bravasaurus

Not to be confused with Bravoceratops, a ceratopsid dinosaur.

Bravasaurus (meaning Laguna Brava lizard) is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Ciénaga del Río Huaco Formation of La Rioja, Argentina. It contains one species, Bravasaurus arreirosorum. ^[1]

Bravasaurus Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, Campanian–Maastrichtian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Speculative restoration of Bravasaurus
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 Hechenleitner et al., 2020
Type species
†Bravasaurus arreirosorum Hechenleitner et al., 2020

Etymology

The generic name Bravasaurus is derived from the Laguna Brava National Park in Argentina. The specific name refers to the people, the arriero or drivers in Spanish, who carried cattle through the Andes in the 19th century.

Description

Bravasaurus was roughly 7 metres (23 ft) long and weighed nearly 2.9 metric tons (3.2 short tons).^[1] It is known from the holotype CRILAR-Pv 612, which consists of the right quadrate and quadratojugal, four cervical, five dorsal, and three caudal vertebrae, few dorsal ribs, three haemal 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 the paratype CRILAR-Pv 613, which consists of an isolated tooth, the right ilium, the right femur, and dorsal ribs.^[1]

Classification

The describers' phylogenetic analysis places Bravasaurus as a derived member of the Lithostrotia, in the clade Aeolosaurini, which they recover as a subclade of Rinconsauria, different from other cladograms. Their cladogram is shown below.

Lithostrotia	Malawisaurus Epachthosaurus Eutitanosauria Dreadnoughtus Rapetosaurus Isisaurus Tapuiasaurus Saltasauridae Colossosauria Baurutitan Bonitasaura Notocolossus Lognkosauria Rinconsauria Rinconsaurus Muyelensaurus Aeolosaurini Overosaurus "Aeolosaurus" Punatitan Aeolosaurus Bravasaurus Trigonosaurus Gondwanatitan Uberabatitan

Paleoenvironment

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 either Bravasaurus or its contemporary Punatitan, which was described in the same paper.