Baurutitan

Baurutitan is a genus of sauropod dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now Brazil. The type species, Baurutitan britoi, was described in 2005 by Kellner and colleagues, although the fossil remains had already been discovered in 1957. Baurutitan is classified as a lithostrotian titanosaur, and is distinguished from related genera based on its distinctive caudal vertebrae. This South American dinosaur was found in the Serra da Galga Formation near Uberaba, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. The holotype of Baurutitan were found in 1957 by Llewellyn Ivor Price, the famous Brazilian paleontologist, in the region of Peirópolis, Minas Gerais. However, it was not until 2005 that Baurutitan was officially published and named. The works of Price in Peirópolis began in 1947 after Jesuíno Felicíssimo Junior, from the Instituto Geográfico e Geológico of São Paulo, told him about the presence of fossils in the region. Price then conducted excavations in an old quarry, known as Quarry Caieira, on the in São Luis farm. Recovered fossils included those of turtles, crocodylomorphs, theropods and sauropods, fish, freshwater invertebrates (gastropods and bivalves), trace fossils, fragments of eggs, and plant debris. Dynamite was occasionally used to remove materials embedded in the matrix. There were expeditions to Caieira between 1949 and 1961, after which fieldwork was not continued due to a lack of new relevant findings. A series of 19 vertebrae (the last sacral and 18 caudals) found at this locality were recognized as belong to those of a titanosaur; they were initially named 'Series "C"', and subsequently became the holotype of the new genus Baurutitan (specimen number MCT 1490-R). All material found was stored in the collection of Museu de Ciência da Terra (Earth Science Museum – MCT) of the Departamento Nacional de Produção Mineral (National Department of Mineral Production) in Rio de Janeiro. In addition to Caieira Quarry, Price also worked in the "Point 6" or "Rodovia" site, also from the Serra da Galga Formation, about 1.