Phil R. Bell and Rodolfo A. Coria
 
Paleoepidemiology (the study of disease and trauma in prehistoric populations) provides insight into the distribution of disease and can have implications for interpreting behavior in extinct organisms. A monospecific bonebed of the giant carcharodontosaurid Mapusaurus (minimum number of individuals = 9) from the Cañaadón del Gato site, Neuquén Province, Argentina (Cenomanian) provides a rare opportunity to investigate disease within a single population of this important apex predator. Visual inspection of 176 skeletal elements belonging to a minimum of nine individuals yielded a small number of abnormalities on a cervical vertebra, two ribs, pedal phalanx, and an ilium. These are attributed to traumatic (two cases), infectious (two cases) and anomalous (one case) conditions in a minimum of one individual. The emerging picture for large theropod (abelisaurids, allosaurids, carcharodontosaurids, tyrannosaurids) populations suggests that 1) osseous abnormalities were relatively rare (7–19% of individuals) but consistently present, and 2) trauma was a leading factor in the frequency of pathological occurrences, evidence of an active, often perilous lifestyle.
 
Bell, P.R. and Coria R.A. 2013. Palaeopathological Survey of a Population of Mapusaurus (Theropoda: Carcharodontosauridae) from the Late Cretaceous Huincul Formation, Argentina. PLoS ONE 8(5): e63409. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0063409.

The oldest record of Aeolosaurini


 
Filippi, L. S., Martinelli, A. G. y Garrido, A. C.
 
The clade Aeolosaurini is represented by several specimens found, so far, only in Argentina and Brazil. The material reported here corresponds to a sauropod titanosaur consisting of four incomplete anterior caudal vertebrae, from the Narambuena Paleontological Site, Rincón de los Sauces, Neuquén Province, Argentina. The specimen comes from the Plottier Formation (late Coniacian-lower Santonian, Upper Cretaceous), Neuquén Group. The specimen has a combination of features that includes it into the clade Aeolosaurini: anterior caudal centra with anterodorsal margin bent forward; prezygapophyses elongated in anterior caudal, in correlation with the extreme displacement of the neural arch forward; and anteroposteriorly elongated articular facets of prezygapophyses, at least in the anterior caudals. However, it differs from other Aeolosaurini by having postzygapophysis with anteroposteriorly short articular facets, not as elongated in the prezygapophyses. This specimen corresponds not only to the fi rst discovery of an Aeolosaurini in the north of the Neuquén Basin (because Rinconsaurus caudamirus Calvo & Gonzalez Riga has been included in another clade, Rinconsauria), but also the oldest record of the group.
 
Filippi, L. S., Martinelli, A. G. y Garrido, A. C. 2013. Registro de  un dinosaurio Aeolosaurini (Sauropoda, Titanosauria) en el Cretácico Superior (Formación Plottier) del Norte de la Provincia de Neuquén, Argentina,  y comentarios sobre los Aeolosaurini sudamericanos. Revista Brasilera de Paleontología 16 (1): 147-156.



 
Laura Codorniú, Luis M. Chiappe, and Fabricio D. Cid.
Two nearly complete skeletons of the filter-feeding pterodactyloid Pterodaustro guinazui from the Lowe Cretaceous of Argentina exhibit clusters of poorly sorted coarse sand to fine gravel inside the abdominal cavity. These stones are interpreted as ingested gastroliths (geogastroliths), which are commonly found in a variety of archosaurs (including birds) but have never before been reported in a pterosaur. The geogastroliths found in these Pterodaustro specimens are interprete as having assisted in the digestion of hard food items such as ‘shelled’ crustaceans that are abundant in the fossil beds of this pterosaur. One of these specimens with geogastroliths has anteriormandibular teeth that are notably thicker than the posterior teeth and are somewhat procumbent. We suggest that these teeth might have facilitated the apprehension of fine gravel.
Codorniú, L., Chiappe, L.M. and Cid, F.D. 2013. First Occurrence of stomach stones in Pterosaurs. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 33(3): 647–654.


Eloísa Argañaraz, Gerald Grellet-Tinner, Lucas E. Fiorelli, J. Marcelo Krause y Oliver W. M. Rauhut
 
Para efectuar una interpretación paleobiológica del primer material oológico hallado en la provincia de Chubut, inferir su escenario paleoambiental y compararlo con huevos de dinosaurios de otras áreas, se describen detalladamente varios fragmentos y dos huevos fósiles incompletos provenientes de la localidad de Huanimán, en el centro-norte de la provincia. El material fue extraído en una arenisca tobácea fina, depositada en facies de planicie de inundación proximal asociada a canales multiepisódicos sinuosos. Esta roca es asignable al Miembro Cerro Castaño de la Formación Cerro Barcino (Aptiano–Albiano). La morfología de las cáscaras es similar a la de otros huevos megalolítidos (un grupo parafilético en la parataxonomía de huevos) de Patagonia tales como los de Auca Mahuevo (Neuquén), identificados como huevos de saurópodos titanosaurios a partir de embriones in ovo, y los de Salitral Moreno (Río Negro). Sin embargo, este nuevo material de Chubut, presenta un nuevo carácter estructural. La red de poros horizontal se ubica debajo de la superficie nodular, a diferencia de los huevos neuquinos donde se encuentra sobre la membrana testácea. Este carácter morfológico y el grosor de cáscara (1.5 mm), sugieren una novedosa adaptación a un ambiente específico de nidificación. Aunque sólo se han encontrado dos huevos aislados en Huanimán, este descubrimiento puede implicar la existencia de un nuevo sitio de nidificación en el área.

Argañaraz, E., Grellet-Tinner, G., Fiorelli, L.E.,  Krause, J. M. y  Rauhut, O.W.M. 2013. Huevos de Saurópodos del Aptiano–Albiano, Formación Cerro Barcino (Patagonia, Argentina): Un enigma Paleoambiental y Paleobiológico. Ameghiniana 50 (1): 33-50.

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