The newly discovered dinosaur species lived on Earth during the Late Santonian and Early Campanian epochs of the Upper Cretaceous epoch, around 83 million years ago.
The ancient species, known as Ibirania parva, had a body length of 5.7 metres (18.7 feet).
It belonged to the Titanosauria, a varied group of long-necked sauropod dinosaurs that existed from the Late Jurassic until the end of the Cretaceous period.
“Titanosauria is a clade of neosauropods with a remarkable diversity and worldwide distribution,” claimed Dr. Bruno Navarro, a palaeontologist at the Universidade de S. Paulo’s Museu de Zoologia, and his colleagues from Brazil and Germany.
“They are known to exhibit conspicuous body size disparity marked by the occurrence of giant and nanoid species. They represent the most typical large-bodied herbivorous faunal component in the Late Cretaceous biotas from the southern continents. Nonetheless, they are also present in Laurasia, with some forms from the Early Cretaceous.”
Dr. Bruno Navarro, a palaeontologist at the Universidade de S. Paulo’s Museu de Zoologia
At least 4 Ibirania parva specimens were collected from an outcrop of the So José do Rio Preto Formation in Vila Ventura, southeastern So Paulo State, Brazil.
“The nanism observed in Ibirania parva is associated with the evolution of an endemic fauna in response to the stressed environment conditions of the São José do Rio Preto Formation, characterized by prolonged drought periods,” the paleontologists said.
They also discovered that Ibirania parva was a member of the Saltasaurinae, a species of titanosaurian dinosaurs previously known only in tiny sizes.
“This new species not only represents one of the tiniest sauropods identified to date, but it also marks the first unambiguous saltasaurine titanosaurian recorded for Brazil,” the researchers said.
“In South America, saltasaurines exhibit a conspicuous reduction in body size, which has been explained as a response to either geographical restriction to a vast north-south coastal corridor of the Andean region in the latest Cretaceous or occupation of new and restricted environments formerly occupied by diplodocoid sauropods.”
image credits:  Matheus Gadelha / Divulgação
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