Episode 146 is all about Lusotitan, a brachiosaurid that lived in the Late Jurassic in what is now Portugal.

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The dinosaur of the day: Lusotitan

Sauropod that lived in the Late Jurassic in what is now Portugal

Name means “Lusitania titan”

Name Luso refers to an inhabitant of Lusitania, “an ancient region that partly corresponds to Portugal”

Type species is Lusotitan atalaiensis

Species name refers to the site where it was found, Atalaia

Found in the Lourinhã Formation in 1947. Manuel de Matos, who was part of the Geological Survey of Portugal, found large sauropod fossils there. Then in 1957 Albert-Félix de Lapparent and Georges Zbyszewski named those fossils Brachiosaurus atalaiensis

Synonym to Brachiosaurus atalaiensis

Lusotitan is considered to be a brachiosaurid (because of its low neural spines, elongated humerus, long forelimbs, and other features), though the skull is not known (but probably similar to other brachiosaurid skulls)

In 2003 Octávio Mateus‭ and ‬Miguel Telles Antunes renamed it as a separate genus, Lusotitan

De Lapparent did not assign a holotype, so in 2003 Mateus chose the skeleton as the lectotype

They chose the most complete individual to be the lectotype

Mannion and others redescribed the Lusotitan lectotype in 2013

Fossils found include a partial skeleton (no skull) and individual vertebrae found in a few locations

The Lourinhã Formation was a coastal region, with similar plants and animals as the Morrison Formation in the U.S., and the Tendaguru Formation in Tanzania

Lusotitan is the largest known dinosaur from its habitat

About 82 ft (25 m) long

Other dinosaurs that lived in the area include theropods Allosaurus, Ceratosaurus, Lourinhanosaurus, Torvosaurus, ankylosaur Dracopelta, diplodocid sauropods Supersaurus, Lourinhasaurus, Zby, and stegosaurs Dacentrurus, Miragaia

Fun Fact:

Unlike Cope & Marsh who died when they were 50s & 60s, Charles Sternberg lived until his 90s.

He also discovered a “mummy” hadrosaur with all 3 of his living sons (who all pursued vertebrate paleontology)