The last of the dinosaur titans: a new sauropod from Madagascar.

The Titanosauria, the last surviving group of the giant sauropod dinosaurs, attained a near-global distribution by the close of the Cretaceous period (65 Myr ago). With the exception of a few new discoveries in Argentina, most titanosaurs are known only from fragmentary postcranial skeletons and rare, isolated skull elements. Here we describe the most complete titanosaur yet discovered. Rapetosaurus krausei gen. et sp. nov., from the Maevarano Formation of Madagascar, provides a view of titanosaur anatomy from head to tail. A total-evidence phylogenetic analysis supports a close relationship between brachiosaurids and titanosaurs (Titanosauriformes). The inclusion of cranial data from Rapetosaurus also lays to rest questions concerning the phylogeny of the enigmatic Mongolian genera Nemegtosaurus and Quaesitosaurus. In spite of their elongated, diplodocoid-like skulls, all three taxa are now firmly nested within Titanosauria.

A bizarre predatory dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar.

Here we report the discovery of a small-bodied (approximately 1.8 m) predatory dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) of Madagascar. Masiakasaurus knopfleri, gen. et sp. nov., represented by several skull elements and much of the postcranial skeleton, is unique in being the only known theropod with a highly procumbent and distinctly heterodont lower dentition. Such a derived dental morphology is otherwise unknown among dinosaurs. Numerous skeletal characteristics indicate that Masiakasaurus is a member of Abelisauroidea, an enigmatic clade of Gondwanan theropods. Previously, small-bodied abelisauroids were known only from Argentina. The occurrence of Masiakasaurus on Madagascar suggests that small-bodied abelisauroids, like their larger-bodied counterparts, were more cosmopolitan, radiating throughout much of Gondwana and paralleling the diversification of small coelurosaur theropods in Laurasia.

The Ischigualasto Tetrapod Assemblage (Late Triassic, Argentina) and 40Ar/39Ar Dating of Dinosaur Origins.

(40)Ar/(39)Ar dating of sanidine from a bentonite interbedded in the Ischigualasto Formation of northwestern Argentina yielded a plateau age of 227.8 +/- 0.3 million years ago. This middle Carnian age is a direct calibration of the Ischigualasto tetrapod assemblage, which includes some of the best known early dinosaurs. This age shifts last appearances of Ischigualasto taxa back into the middle Carnian, diminishing the magnitude of the proposed late Carnian tetrapod extinction event. By 228 million years ago, the major dinosaurian lineages were established, and theropods were already important constituents of the carnivorous tetrapod guild in the Ischigualasto-Villa Unión Basin. Dinosaurs as a whole remained minor components of tetrapod faunas for at least another 10 million years.