Cathartesaura is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaur

Dinosaur

Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...

 hailing from the Late Cretaceous

Late Cretaceous

The Late Cretaceous is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous period is divided in the geologic timescale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous series...

 strata of the Huincul Formation

Huincul Formation

The Huincul Formation is a geologic formation that outcrops in Río Negro and Neuquén provinces of Argentina. It is the second formation in the Río Limay Subgroup, the oldest subgroup within the Neuquén Group...

 located in the "La Buitrera" locality, Río Negro Province

Río Negro Province

Río Negro is a province of Argentina, located at the northern edge of Patagonia. Neighboring provinces are from the south clockwise Chubut, Neuquén, Mendoza, La Pampa and Buenos Aires. To the east lies the Atlantic Ocean.Its capital is Viedma...

, Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

. The fossil

Fossil

Fossils are the preserved remains or traces of animals , plants, and other organisms from the remote past...

 remains, described by Gallina and Apesteguía in 2005, consist of a partial skeleton including vertebrae and limb bones. These were found at the base of the formation

Formation

Formation may refer to:* Formation flying, aerobatics performed with several aircraft* Formation , a high-level military organization* Tactical formation, the physical deployment of military forces-Sports:...

, which spans the Cenomanian

Cenomanian

The Cenomanian is, in the ICS' geological timescale the oldest or earliest age of the Late Cretaceous epoch or the lowest stage of the Upper Cretaceous series. An age is a unit of geochronology: it is a unit of time; the stage is a unit in the stratigraphic column deposited during the corresponding...

 and Coniacian

Coniacian

The Coniacian is an age or stage in the geologic timescale. It is a subdivision of the Late Cretaceous epoch or Upper Cretaceous series and spans the time between 89.3 ± 1 Ma and 85.8 ± 0.7 Ma...

 epochs, in mudstone

Mudstone

Mudstone is a fine grained sedimentary rock whose original constituents were clays or muds. Grain size is up to 0.0625 mm with individual grains too small to be distinguished without a microscope. With increased pressure over time the platey clay minerals may become aligned, with the...

 and sandstone

Sandstone

Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...

 levels.

The generic name is composed of Cathartes

Cathartes

The genus Cathartes includes medium-sized to large carrion-feeding birds in the New World vulture family. The three species currently classified in this genus occur widely in the Americas.- Description :...

, the New World vulture

New World vulture

The New World Vulture or Condor family Cathartidae contains seven species in fivegenera, all but one of which are monotypic. It includes five vultures and two condors found in warm and temperate areas of the Americas....

 genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 and -saura, feminine declination of the Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 term sauros, "lizard". It also implies the juxtaposition of the components of the scientific name of the Turkey Vulture

Turkey Vulture

The Turkey Vulture is a bird found throughout most of the Americas. It is also known in some North American regions as the Turkey Buzzard , and in some areas of the Caribbean as the John Crow or Carrion Crow...

, Cathartes aura, whose Spanish

Spanish language

Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...

 name, "buitre", named the locality where the fossil was found due to the abundance of such birds there.
The specific epithet honors the Argentinian adhesive

Adhesive

An adhesive, or glue, is a mixture in a liquid or semi-liquid state that adheres or bonds items together. Adhesives may come from either natural or synthetic sources. The types of materials that can be bonded are vast but they are especially useful for bonding thin materials...

 company ANAEROBICOS S. A. for providing field and laboratory support during the extraction and preparation of the fossils.

Cathartesaura is a medium-sized herbivorous dinosaur with a long, lightly built, well-muscled neck albeit with a somewhat limited range of dorso-ventral movement.

C. anaerobica has distinguishing characteristics in the vertebrae that ally it with Rebbachisauridae, such as the bony laminae association and the pneumatic chambers in the cervical series.
Being found in early Late Cretaceous sediments, along with other rebbachisaurids, the only diplodocoid group of the time, this find helps cement the notion that a subsequent extinction

Extinction

In biology and ecology, extinction is the end of an organism or of a group of organisms , normally a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point...

 event wiped out these remaining diplodocoid

Diplodocoidea

Diplodocoidea was a superfamily of sauropod dinosaurs, which included some of the longest animals of all time, including slender giants like Supersaurus, Diplodocus, Apatosaurus, and Amphicoelias...

 dinosaurs leaving saltasaurine titanosaurs to occupy the vacant ecological niche

Ecological niche

In ecology, a niche is a term describing the relational position of a species or population in its ecosystem to each other; e.g. a dolphin could potentially be in another ecological niche from one that travels in a different pod if the members of these pods utilize significantly different food...

.