DISTRIBUIÇÃO PALEOGEOGRÁFICA E BIOCRONOLÓGICA DOS TITANOSSAUROS (SAURISCHIA, SAUROPODA) DO GRUPO BAURU, CRETÁCEO SUPERIOR DO SUDESTE BRASILEIRO

Abstract

The Titanosauridae (Saurischia, Sauropoda) is a very common herbivorous dinosaur family in the Upper Cretaceous deposits from South America. In Brazil, titanosaurids occurrences are more usual to the Bauru Group, and they are widely distributed in this unit, comprising especially Álvares Machado, Presidente Prudente, Sao José do Rio Preto, Monte Alto cities in the State of São Paulo, and Uberaba in Minas Gerais. Morphological analysis of the available specimens revealed two main paleogeographic associations. The first, including occurrences near São José do Rio Preto, Ibirá, Uchôa and Cândido Rodrigues (São Paulo State), and the second Uberaba (Minas Gerais State). The presence of the genus Aeolosaurus in the Adamantina Formation from Álvares Machado and Monte Alto (São Paulo State) and in the Serra da Galga Member of the Marília Formation in Uberaba (Minas Gerais State) indicates a Late Campanian/Early Maastrichtian age for this portion of the Bauru Group. This same clade is found, in the Neuquén Basin (Argentina) suggesting possible associations between Brazilian and Argentine sauropods, at least during the Late Cretaceous.