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Antarctosaurus

Antarctosaurus is a genus of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period of what is now South America. The type species, Antarctosaurus wichmannianus, and a second species, Antarctosaurus giganteus, were described by prolific German paleontologist Friedrich von Huene in 1929. Three additional species of Antarctosaurus have been named since then but later studies have considered them dubious or unlikely to pertain to the genus.

Discovery and species
Remains of this dinosaur were first mentioned in print in 1916, although they were not fully described and named until a 1929 monograph written by paleontologist Friedrich von Huene. Antarctosaurus does not refer to the continent of Antarctica since it was first found in Argentina, although it does have the same derivation, from the Greek words αντι-, anti- meaning 'opposite of', αρκτός, arktos meaning 'north' and , sauros meaning 'lizard'. The generic name refers to the animal's reptilian nature and its geographical location on a southern continent. Antarctosaurus wichmannianus is the type species of the genus, named in 1929 after the discoverer of its remains in 1912, geologist Ricardo Wichmann. Two additional limb bones, found in the Chubut Province in 1924, were also referred to A. wichmannianus by von Huene in 1929. which dates to the Coniacian-Santonian stages of the Late Cretaceous Period. Other researchers regard A. giganteus as a likely valid species but probably belonging to a new genus. In 1969, Leigh Van Valen considered A. wichmannianus and A. giganteus to be growth stages of the same species and favored the name A. giganteus. This idea is problematic because A. wichmannianus was named earlier in the same paper and it is known from more material, it should, therefore, get priority over A. giganteus. The two species are also not from the same geological formation which suggests they did not belong to the same time period. In 1933, Von Huene and Charles Matley described another species, Antarctosaurus septentrionalis, meaning "northern". The remains were found in the Lameta Formation of Madhya Pradesh State in India. This species does preserve important anatomical information but has since been assigned to its own genus in 1994; Jainosaurus. Antarctosaurus jaxarticus from Kazakhstan is known from a single femur. It was named by Soviet paleontologist Anatoly Riabinin in 1938, In 1970, two fragmentary limb bones and a partial vertebra were found in the Adamantina Formation (originally described as Bauru Formation;) of the northern Paraná Basin in Brazil. The remains were described by their discoverers Fahad Moysés Arid and Luiz Dino Vizotto in 1971 as A. brasiliensis. or an indeterminate titanosaur. == Description ==
Description
Describing Antarctosaurus is problematic because the type species consists of elements that are of questionable association and none of the species described are known from complete remains, which has caused a confused taxonomy of the genus. a group of large-bodied, quadrupedal herbivores, usually possessing a long neck and tail, with a small head. Antarctosaurus wichmannianus The assemblage of fossil remains that became known as A. wichmannianus were given the specimen number MACN 6904. The total length of A. wichmannianus has been estimated at around . An additional femur and tibia were also referred by von Huene to A. wichmannianus; the femur, FMNH P13019, is over tall. In one study the dimensions of this femur were used in a regression analysis to estimate the mass of A. wichmannianus at about . The referral of the additional femur and tibia has been questioned by later researchers. In 2003 Jaime Eduardo Powell tentatively referred them to cf. Argyrosaurus and in 2012 Philip Mannion and Alejandro Otero considered it an indeterminate titanosaur. The incomplete mandible attributed to A. wichmannianus is squared-off at the front with each dentary bone being L shaped. The teeth were restricted to the front of the lower jaw and were small and slender. However, the jaw of Bonitasaura, described in 2004, is similar in overall shape and is clearly associated with titanosaur skeletal remains, indicating that the lower jaw may belong to A. wichmannianus after all. In 2013 and 2018 respectively, Brasilotitan and Baalsaurus were described which also possessed squared-off jaws. Brazilotitan and Baalsaurus were described as a titanosaurs, closely related to A. wichmannianus. In 2005, Jeffrey Wilson considered the braincase as being referable to Nemegtosauridae but noted that other skull remains require further study. Powell compared the width of the cranium to the length of the limb bones of both A. wichmannianus and Saltasaurus; this led him to conclude that the skull was proportionally small in A. wichmannianus, this might imply that the skull and limb elements could belong to different individuals or a different taxa. He noted, however, that the comparison was potentially misleading because the overall anatomy of Saltasaurus is shorter and stouter which might facilitate a bigger skull. Powell thought it was probable that von Huene correctly assigned the material to A. wichmannianus, arguing that von Huene would have been able to communicate with the discoverers and would have had access to photographs of the discovery site. Extrapolating from the femur's parameters, a 2004 study by Gerardo Mazzetta and colleagues estimated the mass of A. giganteus at approximately ; slightly smaller than Argentinosaurus which in the same study was estimated at nearly . This would make A. giganteus among the heaviest known land animals. In 2019, Gregory S. Paul estimated the mass of A. giganteus in the range, based on newer titanosaur reconstructions. In 2020 Molina-Pérez and Larramendi estimated its length at and its weight similar to Paul's estimation at . Due to the incompleteness of the remains, any size estimates are subject to a large amount of error. Paleontologist Teresa Maryańska noted that, whilst A. jaxarticus was named, it was not properly described or diagnosed. The femur possibly belongs to the titanosaur clade Lithostrotia. The type specimen of "Antarctosaurus" brasiliensis is only known from three fragmentary bones that are titanosaurian in nature; a partial left femur GP-RD-2, a partial right humerus GP-RD-3, and an incomplete dorsal vertebra (backbone) GP-RD-4. The femur is preserved and was estimated at if it were completed. The humerus is preserved and estimated at completed. The dorsal vertebra centrum is long. ==Classification==
Classification
Antarctosaurus has been included in few phylogenetic analyses, only being added to the matrix of Philip Mannion et al. in 2019. It was coded along with Vahiny, Jainosaurus, Normanniasaurus and additional non-titanosaurs. Antarctosaurus placed as sister taxon to a clade of Vahiny and Jainosaurus, consistently close to taxa of the clade Lognkosauria. }} ==References==
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