[N] 2004 Titanosauria
20040102
Jeffrey A. Wilson & Paul Upchurch. 2003. A revision of Titanosaurus Lydekker (Dinosauria - Sauropoda), the first dinosaur genus with a \\\'Gondwanan\\\'
distribution. Journal of Systematic Palaentology, 1(3), 125-160 (Issued 6 November 2003)
In this paper the authors had a close look to the titanosauria which is named for the poorly known genus Titanosaurus, whichwas coined by Lydekker in 1877 on the basis of a partial femur and two incomplete caudal vertebrae. After the first discovery another fourteen species heva been referered to Titanoasurus, making the distribution of Titanosaurs during throughout 60million years of the Cretaceousalmost a global one. The authors concluded that despite its centrality to titanosaur systematics and biogeography, the genus Titanosaurus has never been revised. Therefore they re-evaluate all Titanosaurus species. They concluded that the type species T. indicus is invalid because it is based on \\\'obsolescent\\\' characters - once diagnostic features that have gained abroader taxonomic distributionover time. Consequently, the genus titanosaurus and its co-ordinated rank-taxa (e.g. Titanosaurinae, Titanosauridae, Titanosauroidea) must be abandoned. The unranked taxon Titanosauria, however, remains valid. A new phylogenetic taxonomy is proposed for Titanosauria that utilises nodes that have been judged stable by themost recent cladistic analyses. The early appearance of titanosaur ichnofossils (Middle Jurassic) and body fossils (Late Jurassic) precludes a vicariant origin for the group, but such a pattern cannot yet be ruled out for lower-level taxa within Titanosauria.