Wintonotitan 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 titanosauriform 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...

 from late Albian

Albian

The Albian is both an age of the geologic timescale and a stage in the stratigraphic column. It is the youngest or uppermost subdivision of the Early/Lower Cretaceous epoch/series. Its approximate time range is 112.0 ± 1.0 Ma to 99.6 ± 0.9 Ma...

 (Early Cretaceous

Early Cretaceous

The Early Cretaceous or the Lower Cretaceous , is the earlier or lower of the two major divisions of the Cretaceous...

)-age rocks of Australia. It is known from partial postcrania

Postcrania

Postcrania[p] in zoology and vertebrate paleontology refers to all or part of the skeleton apart from the skull. Frequently, fossil remains, e.g...

l remains.

Description and history

Fossils that are now known under the name Wintonotitan were first found in 1974 by Keith Watts. At the time, the specimens were assigned to an Austrosaurus

Austrosaurus

Austrosaurus was a sauropod dinosaur from the Allaru Mudstone, from the early Cretaceous of Central-Western Queensland in Australia.-Discovery and species:...

sp., Austrosaurus then being the only named Australian Cretaceous sauropod genus. These fossils, catalogued as QMF

Queensland Museum

The Queensland Museum is the state museum of Queensland. The museum currently operates four separate campuses; at South Brisbane, Ipswich, Toowoomba and Townsville.The museum is funded by the State Government of Queensland.-History:...

 7292, consisted of a left shoulder blade

Scapula

In anatomy, the scapula , omo, or shoulder blade, is the bone that connects the humerus with the clavicle ....

, much of the forelimbs, a number of back, hip, and tail vertebrae, part of the right hip

Pelvis

In human anatomy, the pelvis is the lower part of the trunk, between the abdomen and the lower limbs .The pelvis includes several structures:...

, ribs, chevrons

Chevron (anatomy)

A chevron is one of a series of bones on the ventral side of the tail in many reptiles, dinosaurs , and some mammals such as kangaroos and manatees....

, and unidentifiable fragments. QMF 7292 was established as the type specimen

Holotype

A holotype is a single physical example of an organism, known to have been used when the species was formally described. It is either the single such physical example or one of several such, but explicitly designated as the holotype...

 of Wintonotitan in 2009

2009 in paleontology

-Anomalocaridids:-Arachnids:-Insects:-Cephalopods:Three new species of extinct Octopoda discovered in 2009. The species - Keuppia hyperbolaris, Keuppia levante, and Styletoctopus annae - lived about 95 million years ago, and bear a strong resemblance to modern octopuses, suggesting that the...

 by Scott Hocknull

Scott Hocknull

Scott Hocknull is a vertebrate palaeontologist and Senior Curator in Geology at the Queensland Museum in Brisbane. He was the 2002 recipient of the Young Australian of the Year Award....

 and colleagues. The type species

Type species

In biological nomenclature, a type species is both a concept and a practical system which is used in the classification and nomenclature of animals and plants. The value of a "type species" lies in the fact that it makes clear what is meant by a particular genus name. A type species is the species...

 is W. wattsi, honoring the original discoverer. A phylogenetic analysis

Cladistics

Cladistics is a method of classifying species of organisms into groups called clades, which consist of an ancestor organism and all its descendants . For example, birds, dinosaurs, crocodiles, and all descendants of their most recent common ancestor form a clade...

 found Wintonotitan to be a basal titanosauriform sauropod, in a comparable part of the titanosauriform tree to Phuwiangosaurus

Phuwiangosaurus

Phuwiangosaurus is the name given to a genus of dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous. It was a titanosaur which lived in Thailand. The type species, P. sirindhornae, was described by Martin, Buffetaut, and Suteethorn in 1994, it was named to honour Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn of Thailand on her...

.

Paleobiology

QMF 7292 was found about 60 kilometres (37.3 mi) northwest of Winton, near Elderslie Station. A second specimen, QMF 10916, consisting of isolated tail vertebrae, was found at Chorregan. Both were recovered from the lower part of the Winton Formation

Winton Formation

The Winton Formation is a Cretaceous formation in central-western Queensland, Australia. The sauropod dinosaur Austrosaurus is found in the early Cretaceous Winton formation....

, dated to the latest Albian. QMF 7292 was found in 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,...

 interpreted as a point bar

Point bar

A point bar is a depositional feature of streams. Point bars are found in abundance in mature or meandering streams. They are crescent-shaped and located on the inside of a stream bend, being very similar to, though often smaller than towheads, or river islands.Point bars are composed of sediment...

 of a river. Also found at the site were fish fragments, a theropod tooth, and a variety of plant fossils, including woody stems, branch impressions, cones and cone scales, and pieces of leaves. The Winton Formation had a faunal assemblage including bivalves

Bivalvia

Bivalvia is a taxonomic class of marine and freshwater molluscs. This class includes clams, oysters, mussels, scallops, and many other families of molluscs that have two hinged shells...

, gastropods

Gastropoda

The Gastropoda or gastropods, more commonly known as snails and slugs, are a large taxonomic class within the phylum Mollusca. The class Gastropoda includes snails and slugs of all kinds and all sizes from microscopic to quite large...

, insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

s, the lungfish

Lungfish

Lungfish are freshwater fish belonging to the Subclass Dipnoi. Lungfish are best known for retaining characteristics primitive within the Osteichthyes, including the ability to breathe air, and structures primitive within Sarcopterygii, including the presence of lobed fins with a well-developed...

 Metaceratodus

Metaceratodus

Metaceratodus is an extinct genus of prehistoric sarcopterygian or lobe-finned fish. From the Early Cretaceous of Queensland, Australia.-See also:* Sarcopterygii* List of sarcopterygians* List of prehistoric bony fish...

, turtles, the crocodilia

Crocodilia

Crocodilia is an order of large reptiles that appeared about 84 million years ago in the late Cretaceous Period . They are the closest living relatives of birds, as the two groups are the only known survivors of the Archosauria...

n Isisfordia

Isisfordia

Isisfordia is an extinct genus of crocodyliform closely related to crocodilians that lived during the Middle Cretaceous . Its fossils were discovered in the Winton Formation in Isisford, Queensland, Australia in the mid 1990s...

, pterosaur

Pterosaur

Pterosaurs were flying reptiles of the clade or order Pterosauria. They existed from the late Triassic to the end of the Cretaceous Period . Pterosaurs are the earliest vertebrates known to have evolved powered flight...

s, and several types of dinosaurs, such as the theropod Australovenator

Australovenator

Australovenator is a genus of allosauroid theropod dinosaur from late Albian -age rocks of Australia...

, the sauropod Diamantinasaurus

Diamantinasaurus

Diamantinasaurus is a genus of derived titanosaurian dinosaur from late Albian -age rocks of Australia...

, and unnamed ankylosauria

Ankylosauria

Ankylosauria is a group of herbivorous dinosaurs of the order Ornithischia. It includes the great majority of dinosaurs with armor in the form of bony osteoderms. Ankylosaurs were bulky quadrupeds, with short, powerful limbs. They are first known to have appeared in the early Jurassic Period of...

ns and hypsilophodont

Hypsilophodont

Hypsilophodonts were small ornithopod dinosaurs, regarded as fast, herbivorous bipeds on the order of 1–2 meters long . They are known from Asia, Australia, Europe, New Zealand, North America, and South America, from rocks of Middle Jurassic to late Cretaceous age...

s. Wintonotitan bones can be distinguished from Diamantinasaurus bones because Wintonotitan bones are not as robust. Plants known from the formation include fern

Fern

A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem . They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants...

s, ginkgo

Ginkgo

Ginkgo , also spelled gingko and known as the Maidenhair Tree, is a unique species of tree with no close living relatives...

es, gymnosperm

Gymnosperm

The gymnosperms are a group of seed-bearing plants that includes conifers, cycads, Ginkgo, and Gnetales. The term "gymnosperm" comes from the Greek word gymnospermos , meaning "naked seeds", after the unenclosed condition of their seeds...

s, and angiosperms. Like other sauropods, Wintonotitan would have been a large quadruped

Quadruped

Quadrupedalism is a form of land animal locomotion using four limbs or legs. An animal or machine that usually moves in a quadrupedal manner is known as a quadruped, meaning "four feet"...

al herbivore

Herbivore

Herbivores are organisms that are anatomically and physiologically adapted to eat plant-based foods. Herbivory is a form of consumption in which an organism principally eats autotrophs such as plants, algae and photosynthesizing bacteria. More generally, organisms that feed on autotrophs in...

.