Reevaluating the 'Prosauropods' of the Upper Triassic Caturrita Formation of Brazil

Bittencourt, J. S., Stock da Rosa, A. A., and M. C. Langer. in press. Dinosaur remains from the ‘Botucaraí Hill’ (Caturrita Formation), Late Triassic of south Brazil, and their stratigraphic context. Historical Biology. DOI:10.1080/08912963.2012.694881

Abstract - Vertebrate fossils recovered from sites nearby the Botucaraí Hill and Candelária (Caturrita Formation) depict a diverse Late Triassic tetrapod fauna from south Brazil. These records are of key importance to the biostratigraphy of the upper sections of the Rosario do Sul Group. A lithological and biostratigraphic survey on the main fossil localities of the Botucaraí Hill area confirms the occurrence of the lower Hyperodapedon and the upper Riograndia Assemblage Zones in the region, the latter yielding early saurischians. In this paper, three incomplete dinosaur specimens, an isolated sacral vertebra, an articulated left pubis–ischium and an isolated right ischium, from the ‘Botucaraí Hill’ site are described. A comparative survey suggests that these specimens have sauropodomorph affinities, but probably more primitive than typical ‘prosauropods’ from the Norian-Early Jurassic. Regardless of the phylogenetic position of Guaibasaurus as theropod or sauropodomorph, their occurrence in the Caturrita Formation, which also yielded ‘core prosauropods’ from the Santa Maria region, suggests either the survival of early members of the clade with more derived ‘prosauropods’ or that heterochronous faunas are sampled from that stratigraphic unit.