Limaysaurus
Limaysaurus is a genus of rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaurs which lived during the late Cretaceous period, about 99.7 to 94 million years ago, in the Cenomanian, in what is now South America. It is represented by a single species, L. tessonei.
Discovery
Limaysaurus includes a single type species, Limaysaurus tessonei, which was originally referred to the genus Rebbachisaurus as Rebbachisaurus tessonei, an African species, by Jorge Calvo and Leonardo Salgado in 1995. However, a generic separation was proposed by Salgado, Alberto Garrido, Sergio Cocca and Juan Cocca, and the genus Limaysaurus was named in 2004. The generic name is derived from Río Limay which borders the region and from the specific name, tessonei, in honor of Lieto Tessone, who found the first and most complete holotype. Their discovery shed some light on the distribution of Gondwanan dinosaurs in the mid-Cretaceous period. Several specimens of Limaysaurus are known, one of which is 80% complete, being one of the most complete Cretaceous sauropods ever found in South America.The holotype specimen, MUCPv-205, a partial skeleton including the back of the skull, was found in 1988 by Lieto Francisco Tessone, who is honoured in the specific name. It was afterwards collected, together with MUCPv-206, a second fragmentary skeleton, by José Bonaparte. These two adult specimens likely hailed from the top of the Candeleros Formation, which is dated to the early Cenomanian age. An additional smaller specimen, MUCPv-153, was found nearby, although it belonged to the base of the Huincul Formation, from the late Cenomanian.
Limaysaurus was found southwest of Villa [El Chocón], Picún Leufú Department, Neuquén Province, Patagonia, Argentina. The sediments belong to the Río Limay Subgroup, in Lohan Cura Formation, at Cerro Aguada del León. These beds appear to date from the Aptian-Albian interval, although these fossils were later named Comahuesaurus.