Cranial bones and atlas of titanosaurs (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from Late Cretaceous (Bauru Group) of Uberaba, Minas Gerais State, Brazil Agustín G. Martinelli a, b, * , Thiago da Silva Marinho a, c , Leonardo S. Filippi d , Luiz Carlos Borges Ribeiro a , Mara Lúcia da Fonseca Ferraz a , Camila Lourencini Cavellani a , Vicente de Paula Antunes Teixeira a a Centro de Pesquisas Paleontol ogicas L. I. Price, CCCP/UFTM, 38001-970, BR-262, Km 784, Peir opolis, Uberaba, MG, Brazil b Departamento de Paleontologia e Estratigrafia, Instituto de Geoci^ encias, Universidade Federal de Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, Agronomia, 91501-970, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil c Instituto de Ci^ encias Exatas, Naturais e Educaç~ ao (ICENE), UFTM, Av. Randolfo Borges Jr.1700, Univerdecidade, 38064-200, Uberaba, Minas Gerais, Brazil d Museo Municipal Argentino Urquiza, Jujuy y Chaco s/n, (Q8319BFA), Rinc on de los Sauces, Neuqu en, Argentina article info Article history: Received 12 October 2014 Accepted 19 February 2015 Available online xxx Keywords: Titanosauria Lithostratia Peir opolis Prefrontal Squamosal abstract Isolated left prefrontal, left squamosal and atlas of titanosaur dinosaurs are described and compared. They come from the Late Cretaceous Serra da Galga Member of the Marília Formation at the Serra do Veadinho region, Peir opolis (Uberaba County, Minas Gerais State, Brazil). Due to the sparse cranial ele- ments of titanosaurs already known from Brazil, these specimens are noticeable to be presented. In addition, the atlas vertebra is described for the first time for Brazilian titanosaurs. The morphology of the cranial bones closely resembles lithostratian titanosaurs, such as Rapetosaurus, rather than basal tita- nosaurs. The atlas is similar to that of other titanosaurs, suggesting that the anatomy of this element seems to be more conservative than other vertebral elements, in which vertebral laminae play an important rule in titanosaur taxonomy. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Titanosaur sauropods achieved a wide taxonomic diversity mainly in Gondwanan landmasses during the Late Cretaceous (e.g., Powell, 2003; Wilson, 2006; Novas, 2009). The fossil record of this group is particularly well-documented and studied in South America, with about forty named species (e.g., Bonaparte, 1996; Powell, 2003; Novas, 2009). Remains of titanosaurs occur in almost all Late Cretaceous faunal associations of South America, exhibiting a broad spatial as well as temporal distribution (e.g., Bonaparte, 1996; Santucci and Bertini, 2001; Powell, 2003; Wilson, 2006; Salgado and Bonaparte, 2007; Novas, 2009; Bittencourt and Langer, 2011). With regard to the Brazilian fossil record, titano- saurs are particularly notorious integrant of post-Cenomanian Cretaceous continental assemblages of southeastern Brazil (e.g., Kellner and Azevedo, 1999; Kellner and Campos, 2000; Santucci and Bertini, 2001, 2006; Kellner et al., 2005, 2006; Salgado and Carvalho, 2008; Bittencourt and Langer, 2011). The Bauru Group (Bauru Basin) includes the species Gondwanatitan faustoi (Ada- mantina Formation, S~ ao Paulo; Kellner and Azevedo, 1999), Ada- mantisaurus mezzalirai (Adamantina Formation, S~ ao Paulo; Santucci and Bertini, 2006), Aeolosaurus maximus (Adamantina Formation, S~ ao Paulo; Santucci and Arruda-Campos, 2011), Brasilotitan nem- ophagus (Adamantina Formation, S~ ao Paulo; Machado et al., 2013), Maxakalisaurus topai (Adamantina Formation, Minas Gerais; Kellner et al., 2006), Baurutitan britoi (Marília Formation, Minas Gerais; Kellner et al., 2005), Trigonosaurus pricei (Marília Formation, Minas Gerais; Campos et al., 2005), and Uberabatitan ribeiroi (Marília Formation, Minas Gerais; Salgado and Carvalho, 2008). Outside this basin, Gondwanatitan sp. was also recognized in the Cambambe Formation, Parecis Basin, in Mato Grosso State (Franco- Rosas et al., 2004) and Tapuiasaurus macedoi is known from the Quiric o Formation, Sanfranciscana Basin, Minas Gerais State (Zaher et al., 2011). Beside the already described species, there is a huge fossil record based upon isolated remains that could be indicating a noticeably, still poorly known, higher diversity of titanosaurs (e.g., * Corresponding author. Departamento de Paleontologia e Estratigrafia, Instituto de Geoci^ encias, Universidade Federal de Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500, Agronomia, 91501-970, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. E-mail address: agustin_martinelli@yahoo.com.ar (A.G. Martinelli). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of South American Earth Sciences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jsames http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jsames.2015.02.009 0895-9811/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Journal of South American Earth Sciences xxx (2015) 1e7 Please cite this article in press as: Martinelli, A.G., et al., Cranial bones and atlas of titanosaurs (Dinosauria, Sauropoda) from Late Cretaceous (Bauru Group) of Uberaba, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, Journal of South American Earth Sciences (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ j.jsames.2015.02.009