Inawentu
"imitator"
Type species Inawentu oslatus
- Lived
- 86 to 84 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Sauropods
- Found in
- Argentina
- Named by
- Filippi et al. 2024
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
80 million years ago
Habitat
A river floodplain in the Bajo de la Carpa Formation of Argentina. Other dinosaurs from these rocks include Bonitasaura, Alvarezsaurus and Velocisaurus.
Field notes
About Inawentu
What it was like
Inawentu was a titanosaur, a long-necked, four-legged plant eater, known from a partial skeleton with a skull. It had a short neck for a sauropod and a squared-off jaw, like that of Nigersaurus.
Those features suggest it fed on low plants, cropping them like a lawnmower. Its name, meaning "imitator," refers to how it came to look like other ground feeders.
Its world
It lived about 86 to 84 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous, in what is now Argentina. Its bones come from the Bajo de la Carpa Formation, where it shared the land with the titanosaur Bonitasaura and the small hunters Alvarezsaurus and Velocisaurus.
How it was found
Filippi and colleagues named Inawentu in 2024, from a single find.
Field gallery
More views of Inawentu
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
1 of 3
Lived alongside
Found in the same rock formations
A rock formation can hold fossils laid down millions of years apart, so not every animal here met Inawentu.
The evidence
The science behind Inawentu
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- A nearly complete skull preserves a broad snout and a squared-off lower jaw.
- The skeleton includes the complete neck, the backbone through the hips and both upper hip bones.
- Its neck was short and slender for a sauropod.
Borrowed from relatives
- The missing limbs and tail are restored from other titanosaurs such as Bonitasaura.
- Its broad jaws resemble those of Nigersaurus, a more distant relative that also fed near the ground.
Still unknown
- The proportions of its legs and tail.
- Its skin covering and color.
- Which plants it preferred to eat.
Discovery timeline
- 2007How it fedSereno et al.
- 2011Close relativeGallina & Apesteguía
- 2024Named itFilippi et al.
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Inawentu
How it fed
Described the broad feeding apparatus of Nigersaurus, a useful comparison for the independently evolved jaws of Inawentu.
Structural Extremes in a Cretaceous Dinosaur. PLoS ONE 2: e1230
Read the paper : Structural Extremes in a Cretaceous Dinosaur (opens in a new tab)Close relative
Described the skull of Bonitasaura, another square-jawed titanosaur, and compared its place in the family tree.
Cranial Anatomy and Phylogenetic Position of the Titanosaurian SauropodBonitasaura salgadoi. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 56: 45-60
Read the paper : Cranial Anatomy and Phylogenetic Position of the Titanosaurian SauropodBonitasaura salgadoi (opens in a new tab)Named it
Described Inawentu and proposed that its broad jaws evolved for feeding much like those of earlier rebbachisaurid sauropods.
A rebbachisaurid-mimicking titanosaur and evidence of a Late Cretaceous faunal disturbance event in South-West Gondwana. Cretaceous Research 154: 105754
Read the paper : A rebbachisaurid-mimicking titanosaur and evidence of a Late Cretaceous faunal disturbance event in South-West Gondwana (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Eutitanosauria
Sources: Wikidata