Pronunciation: ah-RAH-tah-SOR-us
Meaning: Fire born lizard
Author/s: Sayão et al. (2020)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Ceará, Brasil
Acta Ordinal: #1060
Aratasaurus museunacionali
(Museu Nacional's Fire Born Lizard)Etymology
Aratasaurus is derived from the Tupi words "ara" (fire) and "atá" (born), and the Greek "sauros" (lizard).
The species epithet, museunacionali, honours the Museu Nacional/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; the oldest scientific institution of Brazil, that was devasted by fire on the 2nd of September 2018.
ZooBank registry: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:430ED4FC-3580-4EFF-B1B7-226D0DBF0B34.
Discovery
The remains of Aratasaurus were discovered in the Romualdo formation at the Pedra Branca gypsum mine, about 5.2 km from the town of Santana do Cariri, Ceará State, Northeast Brazil, in 2008, by a local resident who donated them to the Museu de Paleontologia Plácido Cidade Nuvens (MPPCN) of the Universidade Regional do Cariri (URCA).
The holotype (MPSC R 2089) consists of an incomplete right hind limb (a partial thigh, shin and foot).
Preparator
Bruno C. Vila Nova of Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (partim).
Secrets Locked in Bone
In 2026, researchers reported evidence that traces of original blood chemistry had survived within the 115-million-year-old limb bones of Aratasaurus museunacionali. Using several analytical techniques, they identified heme-derived molecules, the same compounds that help carry oxygen in blood, preserved inside tiny structures interpreted as fossilised red blood cells. Because the surrounding rock showed a different chemical signature, contamination was considered unlikely. The study provided some of the strongest evidence yet that delicate biological molecules can persist in dinosaur fossils many millions of years old, opening new possibilities for investigating dinosaur physiology and evolution through molecular remains as well as bones.
