I feel better about it now! If it was named after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I would have been cross.
Thomas Yazbeck
From: Ben Creisler <bcreisler@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, March 1, 2021 10:48 PM
To: Yazbeck, Thomas <yazbeckt@msu.edu>; dinosaur-l@usc.edu <dinosaur-l@usc.edu>
Subject: Re: [dinosaur] Ninjatitan, new titanosaur (earliest known) from Lower Cretaceous of Argentina
Sent: Monday, March 1, 2021 10:48 PM
To: Yazbeck, Thomas <yazbeckt@msu.edu>; dinosaur-l@usc.edu <dinosaur-l@usc.edu>
Subject: Re: [dinosaur] Ninjatitan, new titanosaur (earliest known) from Lower Cretaceous of Argentina
Ben Creisler
The news story in Spanish I included explains the name. "El Ninja" is a nickname for Argentine paleontologist Sebastián Apesteguía, so it's named in his honor.
On Mon, Mar 1, 2021 at 7:44 PM Yazbeck, Thomas <yazbeckt@msu.edu> wrote:
I think it's a horrible name! Childish prefix, played-out suffix (-titan). I also am in the dark about the etymology since I cannot access the full text.
Thomas Yazbeck
From: dinosaur-l-request@mymaillists.usc.edu <dinosaur-l-request@mymaillists.usc.edu> on behalf of Ethan Schoales <ethan.schoales@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, March 1, 2021 10:41 PM
To: dinosaur-l@usc.edu <dinosaur-l@usc.edu>
Subject: Re: [dinosaur] Ninjatitan, new titanosaur (earliest known) from Lower Cretaceous of ArgentinaI can't access the paper, so why did they call it that?
On Mon, Mar 1, 2021 at 10:39 PM Tim Williams <tijawi@gmail.com> wrote:
_Ninjatitan_: cool name. Note that the Late Jurassic (Tendaguru) sauropods _Australodocus_ and _Janenschia_ have occasionally been regarded as titanosaurs; but this has not been supported t by recent phylogenetic analyses (e.g., Mannion et al., 2019). Some years back, I had hoped that _"Apatosaurus" minimus_ (Morrison Formation) might turn out to be a titanosaur; but that hasn't panned out. (All three taxa are very incompletely known.)
Returning to the _Ninjatitan_ paper... I didn't know 'Colossosauria' was so hard to spell.
On Mon, Mar 1, 2021 at 7:03 AM Ben Creisler <bcreisler@gmail.com> wrote:
Ben Creisler
A new paper:
Ninjatitan zapatai gen. et sp. nov.
Pablo Ariel Gallina, Juan Ignacio Canale & José Luis Carballido (2021)
The earliest known titanosaur sauropod dinosaur.
Ameghiniana 58(1): 35–51
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5710/AMGH.20.08.2020.3376
https://www.ameghiniana.org.ar/index.php/ameghiniana/article/view/3376
The titanosaur sauropod record of Patagonia, mainly recovered from Upper Cretaceous strata, is probably the richest worldwide. Here we present a new sauropod dinosaur, Ninjatitan zapatai gen. et sp. nov., from the Lower Cretaceous Bajada Colorada Formation (Berriasian–Valanginian) of north Patagonia (Neuquén Province, Argentina), from which postcranial remains are preserved. The anatomical analysis and comparisons performed in this specimen evidence strong affinity with titanosaur sauropods. This assumption is corroborated with the inclusion of the new taxon in an updated phylogenetic data matrix. The cladistic analyses indicate that Ninjatitan could be considered the earliest known titanosaur sauropod. The combination of features such as the presence of procoelous anterior caudal centra, the pneumatized neural arch of anterior caudal vertebrae, and the posterodorsal border of the scapular acromion near the glenoid level supports its titanosaur affinities. The presence of a basal titanosaurian sauropod in the lowermost Cretaceous of Patagonia supports the hypothesis that the group was established in the Southern Hemisphere and reinforces the idea of a Gondwanan origin for Titanosauria. The Bajada Colorada sauropod fauna represents one of the most diverse and unique associations from the lowermost Cretaceous worldwide recorded.
News:
In Spanish: