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Unnamed Lourinha Brachiosaur

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Description

Brachiosauridae incertae sedis, likely basal end of clade (cf. "Atlasaurinae")

Time horizon: Late Jurassic, Kimmeridgian to Tithonian epochs (~157-145 mya)

Length: ~15m (~50 ft.), perhaps more depending on maturity.

Probable mass: 17+ tons

An as-of-yet undescribed cousin of Atlasaurus paleo-king.deviantart.com/art/… from the Lourinhã formation in Portugal. This species has the same very slender, elongated arms but much bulkier hands, with very thick metacarpals resembling cinderblocks www.flickr.com/photos/62923316…. The thumb claw is large but much closer to the ground that it would have been in Atlasaurus, due to the longer thumb metacarpal. The specimen is on display in Bristol, England. www.flickr.com/photos/62923316…

A naturally occurring 3D cast of a sauropod hand from the same geological formation and locale may be from this same animal. www.academia.edu/388822/A_Thre… . The shape of the cast indicates a very robust hand with the metacarpals arranged in a nearly circular form, with only the rearmost part of the hand hollowed out. This is common in macronarians, especially in brachiosaurs.

This still-unnamed brachiosaur is far closer to Atlasaurus than anything else. It's also a younger species, and may represent a radiation of Atlasaurus's descendants or close relatives into Portugal later in the Jurassic. Along with Atlasaurus it occupies a basal position in Brachiosauridae, and probably forms a neat little Atlasaurinae with Europasaurus as sister group. As for the mysterious sauropod's proportions, judging by the nearly identical arm segment ratios, they were probably not that different from Atlasaurus, though the unnamed animal is a bit smaller. (If I were a certain field guide author, I might even be tempted to lump the two together, despite the unnamed animal being millions of years more recent and from a different continent and geological formation :XD:).
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AcrocanthosaurusA's avatar
If you haven't you should do the titanosaur Notocolossus.