Dinosaur VaultEvery known dinosaur
Menucocelsior, Late CretaceousAllen Formation, Argentina · named 2022
See more pictures

Menucocelsior

Type species Menucocelsior arriagadai

Lived
72 to 66 million years ago, Late Cretaceous
Diet
Herbivore
Group
Sauropods
Found in
Argentina
Named by
Aranciaga Rolando et al. 2022

Where its fossils were found

The evidence

Today

1 find

70 million years ago

Map: C. R. Scotese, PALEOMAP

Habitat

Shallow waterways crossed the landscape preserved in the Allen Formation of Argentina. Rocasaurus, Aeolosaurus and Bonapartenykus also lived in these rocks.

Field notes

About Menucocelsior

What it was like

Menucocelsior was a medium-sized titanosaur, a long-necked plant eater. It is known from part of the skeleton.

Its world

It lived about 72 to 66 million years ago, near the end of the Cretaceous, in what is now Argentina. It comes from the Allen Formation, where it shared the land with the long-snouted hunter Austroraptor, the abelisaur Abelisaurus and the titanosaurs Aeolosaurus and Neuquensaurus.

How it was found

Aranciaga Rolando and colleagues named Menucocelsior in 2022. The type species is Menucocelsior arriagadai.

Field gallery

More views of Menucocelsior

Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.

Menucocelsior in its habitat, photo 1

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 Menucocelsior.

The evidence

The science behind Menucocelsior

Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.

From its own fossils

  • One associated skeleton preserves a series of tail vertebrae, a right upper arm bone, a left lower leg bone and part of a foot or hand bone.
  • Its tail joints have deep sockets at the front and rounded ends at the back.
  • The upper arm bone is stout and straight, with only slightly widened ends, and the lower leg bone is short and sturdy.

Borrowed from relatives

  • The missing head is restored from titanosaurs with known skulls such as Tapuiasaurus.
  • The neck and trunk are restored using better-preserved titanosaurs such as Mnyamawamtuka.

Still unknown

  • The shape of its skull and teeth, and its color.
  • Whether it carried bony plates in its skin. Loose armor plates from the same site were not found with its skeleton.
  • Its exact place among the advanced titanosaurs.

Discovery timeline

  1. 2007Same rocksSalgado et al.
  2. 2012Same rocksAgnolin et al.
  3. 2022Named itRolando et al.
  4. 2026Same rocksBellardini et al.

Key papers

The research behind what we know of Menucocelsior

Close relatives

Other members of Eutitanosauria

Sources: Wikidata