Limaysaurus
Name: »Limay lizard«
Length: 18 m
Height: 6 m
Weight: 18 tons
Diet: herbivore
Time: Cretaceous (111-99 MYA)
Location: South America
Limaysaurus was a rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaur from the Lower Cretaceous of northwestern Patagonia, and includes a single species, L. tessonei, which was originally referred to the genus Rebbachisaurus (as R. tessonei by Calvo and Salgado, 1995). The holotype and additional material referred Limaysaurus was found in 1988 by Lieto F. Tessone (hereby the origin of the species name), and afterwards collected from the Puesto Quiroga Member of the Lohan Cura Formation at Cerro Aguada del Leon in the south-central part of Neuquen Province, Patagonia, Argentina, between 1995 and 2002. These beds appear to date from the Aptian-Albian interval.
A cladistic analysis of macronarian sauropods (Salgado et al., 2004; Fig. 6) demonstrated close affinities between Limaysaurus, Rebbachisaurus, and Nigersaurus. The Family Rebbachisauridae is a basal clade within the Diplodocimorpha, and their remains have been found in Cretaceous-age rocks in Europe, South America, and Africa.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Superorder: Dinosauria
Suborder: Sauropodomorpha
Family: Rebbachisauridae
Genus: Limaysaurus Salgado et al., 2004
Species: L. tessonei (Calvo & Salgado, 1995)