Muyelensaurus

Muyelensaurus (meaning "Muyelen lizard", after an indigenous name for the Colorado River in Argentina) is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Argentina. It was more slender than other titanosaurs.^[1] Fossils have been recovered in the Neuquén province of Patagonia and were originally assigned to the Portezuelo Formation but further research showed that these layers belong to the Plottier Formation.^[2] The type species is M. pecheni.^[3] The name Muyelensaurus first appeared in a 2007 paper by Argentine paleontologists Jorge Calvo of the Universidad Nacional del Comahue and Bernardo González Riga of the Laboratorio de Paleovertebrados, and Brazilian paleontologist Juan Porfiri of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.^[1]

Muyelensaurus Temporal range: late Coniacian-early Santonian ~86–85 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Clade:	Dinosauria
Clade:	Saurischia
Clade:	†Sauropodomorpha
Clade:	†Sauropoda
Clade:	†Macronaria
Clade:	†Titanosauria
Clade:	†Rinconsauria
Genus:	†Muyelensaurus Calvo et al. 2007
Species
†M. pecheni Calvo et al. 2007 (type)

Classification

The cladogram below follows Franca et al. (2016), placing Muyelensaurus as a basal lithostrotian.^[4]

Lithostrotia	Malawisaurus Muyelensaurus Nemegtosauridae Nemegtosaurus Tapuiasaurus Rapetosaurus Saltasauroidea Diamantinasaurus Baurutitan Isisaurus Saltasauridae Alamosaurus Opisthocoelicaudia Neuquensaurus Saltasaurus Aeolosaurini Maxakalisaurus Panamericansaurus Rinconsaurus Gondwanatitan Aeolosaurus maximus Aeolosaurus colhuehuapensis Aeolosaurus rionegrinus

The cladogram below follows Mocho et al. (2019), this time placing Muyelensaurus within Rinconsauria.^[5]

Lithostrotia	Malawisaurus Paludititan Lohuecotitan Epachthosaurus Opisthocoelicaudiinae Alamosaurus Opisthocoelicaudia Saltasaurinae Neuquensaurus Rocasaurus Saltasaurus Lirainosaurinae Lirainosaurus Atsinganosaurus Ampelosaurus Bonatitan Rapetosaurus Nemegtosaurus Aeolosaurinae Gondwanatitan Aeolosaurus Rinconsauria Rinconsaurus Muyelensaurus Bonitasaura Lognkosauria Mendozasaurus Futalognkosaurus