Histriasaurus

Discovery and naming

The holotype, specimen WN V-6, was found in a bonebed in lacustrine limestone exposed on the seafloor off the coast of the town of Bale on the Istrian peninsula in Croatia by Dario Boscarolli during the 1980s, and described in 1998 by Dalla Vecchia.

The type species, H. boscarollii, was described by Dalla Vecchia in 1998. The specific name honours the discoverer of the site, Darío Boscarolli. Although some authors consider Histriasaurus a dubious taxon, more recent papers support the original classification.

Classification

It was a diplodocoid sauropod, related to, but more primitive than, Rebbachisaurus. Phylogenetic analyses published in 2007 and 2011 placed Histriasaurus as the most basal member of Rebbachisauridae.

Paleoenvironment

Histriasaurus would have coexisted with an indeterminate camarasaurid, an indeterminate titanosauriform, an indeterminate somphospondylian, an indeterminate theropod, an indeterminate dinosaur of unknown classification and the foraminiferan Campanellula capuensis.

References

References

1. Dalla Vecchia, F. M. (1998). Remains of Sauropoda (Reptilia, Saurischia) in the Lower Cretaceous (Upper Hauterivian/Lower Barremian) limestones of SW Istria (Croatia). ''Geologica Croatica'' '''51''' (2): 105-134.
2. Apesteguía, S. (2005). "Evolution in the hyposphene-hypantrum complex within Sauropoda". ''In'' K. Carpenter & V. Tidwell (eds.), ''Thunder-Lizards: The Sauropodomorph Dinosaurs''. Indiana University Press, Bloomington 248-267
3. (2007). "Structural Extremes in a Cretaceous Dinosaur". PLOS ONE.
4. (2011). "''Demandasaurus darwini'', a new rebbachisaurid sauropod from the Early Cretaceous of the Iberian Peninsula". Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.
5. F. M. Dalla Vecchia. (2001). An odd dinosaur bone from the Lower Cretaceous of Istria (Croatia). ''Natura Nascosta'' 22:34-35
6. F. M. Dalla Vecchia. (1995). Jurassic and Cretaceous sauropod evidence in the Mesozoic carbonate platforms of the southern Alps and Dinarids. In M. G. Lockley, V. F. dos Santos, C. A. Meyer, & A. P. Hunt (eds.), ''Aspects of Sauropod Paleobiology''. GAIA 10:65-73