Estudo de fêmures de Titanossauros (Sauropoda, Titanosauria) da América do Sul: um levantamento bibliográfico

Abstract

The Titanosauriformes are the most diverse and abundant group of sauropod dinosaurs in South America, which obtained a great evolutionary success during the Upper Cretaceous. During the evolutionary process of these herbivorus gigants, there were anatomical changes in the body plane, among these, we highlight changes in the hind limbs, such as the alteration in the fêmur morphology, which is linked to the biomechanics of these dinosaurs. In this way, the present work had as objective to elaborate a survey of the state of the art of the morphology of femurs of titanosaurs of South America already described in the literature, seeking to contribute with the compilation of data and in future studies on the evolutionary process of the group. The results and considerations obtained reveal a significant number of findings, however few have more detailed morphological descriptions. However, they present similar characteristics that characterize the South American femurs.