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TITLE: The pelvic and hind limb anatomy of the stem-sauropodomorph Saturnalia tupiniquim (Late Triassic, Brazil)
AUTHOR: Max Cardoso Langer
JOURNAL: PaleoBios
PUBLISHED: Sep 22, 2003
NOTES: 23(2)
ABSTRACT: Three partial skeletons allow a nearly complete description of the sacrum, pelvic girdle, and hind limb of the stem-sauropodomorph Saturnalia tupiniquim, from the Late Triassic Santa Maria Formation, South Brazil. The new morphological data gathered from these specimens considerably improves our knowledge of the anatomy of basal dinosaurs, providing the basis for a reassessment of various morphological transformations that occurred in the early evolution of these reptiles. These include an increase in the number of sacral vertebrae, the development of a brevis fossa, the perforation of the acetabulum, the inturning of the femoral head, as well as various modifications in the insertion of the iliofemoral musculature and the tibio-tarsal articulation. In addition, the reconstruction of the pelvic musculature of Saturnalia, along with a study of its locomotion pattern, indicates that the hind limb of early dinosaurs did not perform only a fore-and-aft stiff rotation in the parasagittal plane, but that lateral and medial movements of the leg were also present and important.
COLLECTION: PaleoBios Archive Public
ID: 219

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    BNHM      University of California, Berkeley