Pronunciation: ee-poo-pee-AH-rah
Meaning: The one who lives in the water
Author/s: Brum et al. (2021)
Synonyms: None known
First Discovery: Minas Gerais state, Brazil
Acta Ordinal: #1067
Ypupiara lopai
(Lopa's One Who Dwells In The Water)Etymology
Ypupiara means "the one who lives
in the water", and alludes to both a Tupian myth about an aquatic
creature of the same name, and the inferred fish-based diet of Ypupiara.
The species epithet, lopai, honours Alberto Lopa (of the former Divisão de Geologia e Mineralogia,
Departamento Nacional de Produçao Mineral–DNPM of
Peirópolis). He is responsible, together with Llewellyn Ivor Price,
for starting the systematic palaeontological exploration of the
region of Peirópolis, Minas Gerais state, and for recovering most
of the material studied by Price. In addition, Lopa also
recovered the fossil of Ypupiara.
ZooBank registry: urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:04F236A0-2BD7-41A7-8013-16BE2BF6F56C.
Discovery
The remains of Ypupiara were discovered on road BR 262 at the Caiera site (also known as Ponto 1 do Price) in the Serra da Galga Formation,
Serra do Veadinho, close to
the rural district of Peirópolis, Uberaba City, Minas Gerais state, Brazil, by Alberto Lopa in the 1950s (perhaps 1957).
Brum et al. (2021) assigned the site to the Marília Formation, following Dias-Brito et al. (2001). However, the northeastern deposits traditionally included within the Marília Formation (the Serra da Galga member and Ponte Alta member) differ markedly from the southeastern/northwestern deposits (the Echaporã Member), and Soares et al. had already elevated the Serra da Galga member to full formation status in 2020.The holotype (DGM 921-R) is a partial right upper jaw bone with three teeth, and a partial right lower jaw bone. An associated fish jaw reinforces the theory that unenlagiines—because their unserrated, cone-like teeth resemble those of piscivorous spinosaurids, pterosaurs, and crocodilians—were fish-eaters. Lopa also collected a second small theropod from the same locality—based on three partial metatarsals and informally nicknamed "Lopasaurus"—which Brum et al. considered to be another probable unenlagiine, perhaps even the same critter as Ypupiara. Its fossils were illustrated by Llewellyn Ivor Price, but disappeared from the Museu Nacional collections sometime after his death in 1980.
