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Epachthosaurus sciuttoi

Epachthosaurus is derived from the Greek "epakhthes" (heavy or ponderous) and "sauros" (lizard). The species epithet, sciuttoi, honours Dr. J. C. Sciutto, who reported the fossil locality in Valbuena's Estancia "Ocho Hermanos" (Estancia is a Spanish word that means farm or ranch) to the Museo de Ciencias Naturales "B. Rivadavia". The first remains of Epachthosaurus were discovered in the Bajo Barreal Formation (Chubut Group, San Jorge Basin) at Estancia "Ocho Hermanos", Sierra de San Bernardo, Sarmiento Department, Chubut Province, Argentina, by Dr JF Bonaparte in 1979.
The holotype (MACN-CH 1317) is a relatively short but very wide-bodied back vertebra. The paratype (MACN-CH 18689) is a set of six articulated back vertebrae, a partial sacrum, and a piece of hip bone, found by Bonaparte and his team in 1981. Due to their occurrence in extremely resistant matrix, plaster casts of the visible fossils were made where they lay in the ground. These, along with the holotype, were originally referred to Antarctosaurus sp. by Bonaparte and Gasparini, and reinterpreted by Powell as ?Argyrosaurus superbus in 1986. The actual fossils were excavated several years later by personnel of the Universidad de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco". As part of the "Los vertebrados de la Formación Bajo Barreal, Provincia de Chubut, Patagonia, Argentina" project, personnel from the Laboratorio de Paleontologia de Vertebrados of the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia ''San Juan Bosco'' found a third specimen—UNPSJB-PV 920—an articulated skeleton lacking only the skull, neck, four or five back vertebrae and several vertebrae from the end of the tail. It was described briefly in 1988 by Martínez, Giménez, Rodríguez and Luna, who managed to assign it to Epachthosaurus in 1989, which was a year before Epachtosaurus was officially named!