Ninjatitan
"Ninja titan"
Type species Ninjatitan zapatai
- Lived
- 139 to 133 million years ago, Early Cretaceous
- Diet
- Herbivore
- Group
- Sauropods
- Found in
- Argentina
- Named by
- Gallina et al. 2021
Where its fossils were found
The evidence
Today
135 million years ago
Habitat
Branching river channels crossed the landscape recorded in the Bajada Colorada Formation. Other long-necked plant eaters there included Bajadasaurus and Leinkupal.
Field notes
About Ninjatitan
What it was like
Ninjatitan was a titanosaur, a long-necked plant eater. It is known from part of the skeleton. It is one of the oldest titanosaurs known.
Its world
It lived in the Early Cretaceous, in what is now Argentina. It comes from the Bajada Colorada Formation, where it shared the land with the spiny-necked sauropod Bajadasaurus and the diplodocid Leinkupal.
How it was found
Gallina and colleagues named Ninjatitan in 2021. The type species is Ninjatitan zapatai. The name honors a local fossil hunter by his nickname.
Field gallery
More views of Ninjatitan
Scenes reconstructed from the available fossil evidence.
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 Ninjatitan.
The evidence
The science behind Ninjatitan
Which parts of the picture come from its own bones, and which come from its relatives.
From its own fossils
- Material assigned to Ninjatitan includes a back vertebra, front tail vertebrae and a shoulder blade.
- A front tail vertebra assigned to it resembles those of diplodocoid sauropods, while its back vertebra and shoulder blade resemble those of titanosaur relatives.
Borrowed from relatives
- The missing head, neck and much of the body are restored from better-known long-necked sauropods.
Still unknown
- Its exact place in the sauropod family tree.
- Whether all the bones assigned to it belong to one kind of dinosaur; one later study considers they may come from more than one.
- Its complete body proportions and color.
Discovery timeline
- 2014Same rocksGallina et al.
- 2021Named itGallina, Canale & Carballido
- 2026Family treeMannion & Carvalho
Key papers
The research behind what we know of Ninjatitan
Same rocks
Named Leinkupal from the Bajada Colorada Formation, showing that diplodocids survived into the Cretaceous in South America.
A Diplodocid Sauropod Survivor from the Early Cretaceous of South America. PLoS ONE 9: e97128
Read the paper : A Diplodocid Sauropod Survivor from the Early Cretaceous of South America (opens in a new tab)Named it
Described the partial skeleton and proposed Ninjatitan as an exceptionally early titanosaur.
The Earliest Known Titanosaur Sauropod Dinosaur. Ameghiniana 58
Read the paper : The Earliest Known Titanosaur Sauropod Dinosaur (opens in a new tab)Family tree
A study of the Brazilian sauropod Triunfosaurus found Ninjatitan outside the titanosaurs and raised the possibility that its bones come from different sauropods.
Re-evaluation of the Early Cretaceous titanosauriform sauropod dinosaur Triunfosaurus leonardii from the Triunfo Basin, Brazil: implications for the initial radiations of Somphospondyli and Titanosauria. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 207
Read the paper : Re-evaluation of the Early Cretaceous titanosauriform sauropod dinosaur Triunfosaurus leonardii from the Triunfo Basin, Brazil: implications for the initial radiations of Somphospondyli and Titanosauria (opens in a new tab)
Close relatives
Other members of Titanosauria
Sources: Wikidata