Pronunciation: leen-koo-pahl
Meaning: Vanishing family
Author/s: Gallina et al. (2014)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Neuquén, Argentina
Discovery Chart Position: #865
Leinkupal laticauda
Due to a lack of diplodocid remains in anything older than Late Jurassic-aged rocks of anywhere, ever, paleontologists were convinced that Mother Nature warmed up for the great K-Pg cull by holding a dawn of the Early Cretaceous mini extinction event which stopped them dead in their tracks and cleared a path for titanosaurs to diversify and rush into the vacant "huge plant muncher" niche. However, the discovery of Leinkupal laticauda showed this not to be the case. At least in South America.
Leinkupal hails from Argentina's Baja Colorada; a rock formation dated to the early Cretaceous, which makes it the only confirmed diplodocid from South America and the stratigraphically youngest known from anywhere in the world. But that's not all. It bunches with the Late Jurassic-aged Tornieria from Africa and Diplodocus from North America in a family of specialist diplodocids known as Diplodocinae, so their kind must have evolved and radiated across the single ancient super-continent of Pangaea before it split into Gondwana (including current South America and Africa) and Laurasia (including current North America) around 160 mya, which pushes the origin of their ancestors—the diplodocoids—way back, possibly into the Middle Jurassic.
Leinkupal hails from Argentina's Baja Colorada; a rock formation dated to the early Cretaceous, which makes it the only confirmed diplodocid from South America and the stratigraphically youngest known from anywhere in the world. But that's not all. It bunches with the Late Jurassic-aged Tornieria from Africa and Diplodocus from North America in a family of specialist diplodocids known as Diplodocinae, so their kind must have evolved and radiated across the single ancient super-continent of Pangaea before it split into Gondwana (including current South America and Africa) and Laurasia (including current North America) around 160 mya, which pushes the origin of their ancestors—the diplodocoids—way back, possibly into the Middle Jurassic.
(Thick-tailed vanishing family)Etymology
Leinkupal is derived from the Mapudungun "lein" (vanishing) and "kupal" (family), because it represents the last-living member of a family of sauropods known as Diplodocidae.
Mapudungun—"mapu" (earth) and "dungun" (speak)—is a language of the Mapuche—"mapu" (earth) and "che" (people)—of Argentina.
The species epithet, laticauda, is derived from the Latin "latus" (wide) and "cauda" (tail), referring to its thick tail. ZooBank registry: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:C0C69F2B-D85C-4E20-BB8D-FE81C1CCAD7D.
Discovery
The first remains of Leinkupal were discovered in the Bajada Colorada Formation (Neuquén Basin), 40 km south of Picún Leufú town on the national route 237, southeastern Neuquén Province, Patagonia, Argentina, in 2010. The holotype (MMCH-Pv 63-1) is a single tail vertebra, but more remains make up a five part paratype: MMCH-Pv 63-2/3 (two neck vertebrae), MMCH-Pv 63-4 (another neck vertebra), MMCH-Pv 63-5 (a back vertebra), MMCH-Pv 63-6 (another tail vertebra), and MMCH-Pv 63-7/8 (another two tail vertebrae).
