Pronunciation: sahr-me-en-toe-sor-us
Meaning: Sarmiento lizard
Author/s: MartÃnez et al. (2016)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Chubut, Argentina
Discovery Chart Position: #924
Sarmientosaurus musacchioi
Although titanosauria had snowballed into some 60-odd species between 1887 (when Lydekker coined the founding member: Titanosaurus indicus) and 2015, only three of them - Nemegtosaurus, Rapetosaurus and Tapuiasaurus - sported skull material of any note. In 2016, Sarmientosaurus became the fourth, and the first titanosaur from southern South America for which an articulated, virtually complete adult skull has been discovered, to boot. Palaeontologists wasted no time in exposing it to physical and virtual scrutiny, thus pinpointing features that were previously unseen in this particular group of sauropod dinosaurs.
Using computed tomography (CT), researchers found evidence of greater sensory capabilities in the brain of Sarmientosaurus than in most other sauropod dinosaurs, larger orbits, indicative of huge eyeballs, suggesting it had good vision, and an inner ear tuned to hearing low-frequency sounds. Based on the lay of the balance organ within its ear, it habitually held its head with the snout angled downwards like at least one member of a completely different sauropod lineage—the diplodocids—which, at least some experts suspect, is a design suited primarily to low-level feeding.
Using computed tomography (CT), researchers found evidence of greater sensory capabilities in the brain of Sarmientosaurus than in most other sauropod dinosaurs, larger orbits, indicative of huge eyeballs, suggesting it had good vision, and an inner ear tuned to hearing low-frequency sounds. Based on the lay of the balance organ within its ear, it habitually held its head with the snout angled downwards like at least one member of a completely different sauropod lineage—the diplodocids—which, at least some experts suspect, is a design suited primarily to low-level feeding.
(Musacchioi's Sarmiento lizard)Etymology
Sarmientosaurus is derived from "Sarmiento" (for the Patagonian town and the administrative department in which it is located) and the Greek "sauros" (lizard).
The species epithet, musacchioi, honours the late Dr. Eduardo Musacchio, a model scientist and educator at the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco in Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina.
ZooBank registry: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:C1090B8D-D051-44F3-B869-8B4A0C802176.
Discovery
The remains of Sarmientosaurus were discovered in the Lower Member of the Bajo Barreal Formation (Chubut Group), Estancia Laguna Palacios, Sierra Nevada Anticline, Golfo San Jorge Basin, southern Chubut Province, central Patagonia, Argentina.The holotype (MDT-PV 2) is a virtually complete skull and a partial neck.
Preparators
Marcelo Luna.
